Re: state of the release: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

[Carl Sorensen]

On 5/27/10 7:05 AM, "David Kastrup" <address@hidden> wrote:

> Valentin Villenave <address@hidden> writes:
> 
>> On Wed, May 26, 2010 at 3:39 PM, Graham Percival
>> <address@hidden> wrote:
>> nobody really felt that actually committing the patches was their job.
> 
> The problem is that committing a patch suggests some basic
> responsibility.  If a patch is not within the comfort zone of
> prospective committers, it tends to rot.

I think that there is truth in both of those issues.  For Frogs, I have
the responsibility of committing patches.  But for David's patch, it's
outside my comfort zone.  Han-Wen and Nicolas reviewed the patch, and
thought it looked fine.  I dropped the ball in committing it.

Because it was outside my comfort zone, I wasn't going to commit it without
approval from somebody who knew better.  Perhaps I should have been more
aggressive in asking for specific reviews.  Certainly I should not have lost
track of the issue for 2 weeks.

> 
>> - "Patch"-tagged issued on the tracker don't seem to work either...
>> It has been suggested in the past (by you) that we could use another
>> mailing list, either specifically for patches-reviewing, or on the
>> contrary for all non-patch-related discussions that usually clutter
>> the -devel list.
> 
> I think that the developer list is for development, and that includes
> patches.
> 
> I also think that "Signed-off-by" tends to work somewhat more formally
> than "LGTM" does.
> 

I agree with this -- we have no mechanism for formal signing off.  Having a
mechanism for signing off might help with our reviewing process.

>> I've been reading (actually, discovering) the CG over the past few
>> weeks, and I have to say it seems quite complete and up-to-date to me.
> 
> It does not help with explaining the internals of Lilypond all too much,
> but then nothing does right now.
>

In my opinion, the lack of a clear explanation of the internals of LilyPond
is the biggest obstacle for getting started in development.
 
>> On a personal note, I'm sorry for not having been more available this
>> year. I can't wait to work on LilyPond again!
> 
> In a healthy project, contributors come and go.  If you instead only see
> the same faces leaving and returning, something is amiss that makes
> starting to contribute hard.

Yes, this is true.  In your opinion, what are the top 3-5 things that make
starting to contribute hard?

Thanks,

Carl