mon journal - par Vincent - Planet answers - Comments

Planet answers - Cassidy

Cassidy — Mon, 19 Dec 2005 21:16:03 +0000

I agree, a gnome-patch-review-day could be a great idea.
Just sorting patch to be reviewed in some categories (trivial,minor,big) using a wiki page, a bugzilla feature or something like that; then maintainers would have a better idea of what sort of patches they have to review.
That would be also interesting to put the light on modules where the maintainer doesn't have time enough to review patchs (when this list become too big).

Planet answers - Murray Cumming

Murray Cumming — Mon, 19 Dec 2005 15:20:54 +0000

The solution to ignored patches is for maintainers to ask for co-maintainers. I don't understand why some maintainers don't ask for help.

Planet answers - Devin

Devin — Mon, 19 Dec 2005 13:46:06 +0000

We have Gnome-Love days, and Gnome-Bug-Days, why not have Gnome-Patch-Review-Days? I'm sure lots of people can help to review those small-three-lines-patches, and take care of them.

I know its not that simple with large patches, and that these ones must be reviewed by maintainers, but who sends a large-patch already knows it, and will wait.

In my own opinion a gnome-patch-day, could help a coder to get involved into gnome, by getting a patch, checking it, testing it, etc... You can get in contact with gnome in a gnome-love day, and then continue as a natural way in a gnome-review-patch-day.

Planet answers - yop

yop — Mon, 19 Dec 2005 13:33:20 +0000

I'd have to agree that new contributors (patches) often gets completly ignored.
Or sometimes a contribution is rejected by the maintainer because they want to add the feature
their own way. Happened to me on well know KDE music player for a popular requested feature.
People don't like being ignored, and people not being stupid go away and sometimes never come back.
In fact, large projects such as GNOME or KDE feel close source because you can't get anything
in if you're not friend with the developer or spend 24/24 in IRC. My feeling is it's just
a waste of time.
I would advice new contributors to help a smaller project, it's much more easy to get accepted
and not lost in the general noise. Another good way to get a grasp of the project if to fix bugs but if
there are ignored or if it take 6 months to get the code in it's also a big waste of time...

Planet answers - Staz

Staz — Mon, 19 Dec 2005 13:14:06 +0000

As said in Luis' blog' comments, one of the principal problem is that potential contributer are getting ignored, having to wait months to get a review on a 3 lines patchs ...
In fact after discuting a little on IRC, it's even worse, some maintener thinks it's *normal* to wait. One even told me than it's nothing to wait 6 months to contribute to the gnome project :/

And yes technical is also a problem (I don't like C much) and lack of technical doc too.