Re: branching

[Trevor Daniels]

Mike Solomon wrote Wednesday, December 11, 2013 10:22 AM

> On Dec 11, 2013, at 11:36 AM, David Kastrup <address@hidden> wrote:
>
>> As opposed to me, Graham excelled at organizing
>> and maintaining community efforts like this which makes his leaving an
>> even larger loss.
>
> His leaving is a huge loss, and as he has stated several times, one big 
> reason is the lack of sense of community.  devel-list quarrels and the 
> thaws that come from them have real impacts on LilyPond - I can’t 
> emphasize enough that we need to stop marginalizing this issue and 
> tackle it head on.  Modularity, while perhaps a good long term solution, 
> is a long ways away.  How are we going to deal with this in 2014?

Actually, I think there is a great sense of community within the LilyPond
project.  Why else would people comment so favourably on the responses
they receive on the various mailing lists; why else would people on the
bug squad, Phil on releases, James on managing reviews, etc devote their
time to mundane tasks?  Why else would people, even those no longer
active in LilyPond development, continue to read the lists?  No, we are
a great community and it is greatly enjoyable to belong to it!  

Also we are extremely fortunate to have so many brilliant developers
willing to spend their time augmenting, fixing and improving our baby.
That differences arise from time-to-time is inevitable - from the nature of
this project our community includes people covering a wide range of
temperament.  Artists, artisans and engineers all figure prominently.  They
have different viewpoints and approaches, but this is an advantage not
a problem - providing we can find a way to live and work together without
stress levels getting too high.

> How are we going to deal with this in 2014?

I would recommend Mike and David both consider privately what they
might have done differently to avoid this situation arising.  Not what the
other should have done, but what they themselves might have done.
If they'd like to share those thoughts with the list that would be good, but
that is not essential.  But they must share them with each other and try
to culture a mutual respect and understanding for the other's position.

Trevor