RE: Subversion Vision and Roadmap Proposal

> In particular, there are people who have patches for svn, and we don't
> handle them very well. In some cases, there is a high bar of
> review/change/resubmit that turns people off. In other cases, people
> are focused on whatever task they're working on, and the patches are
> left by the wayside. We have a Patch Manager that attempts to ensure
> we don't completely lose patches, but that is a far cry from
> *engaging* those patch developers. In other scenarios, we have several
> people all providing "input" and "direction" to the would-be
> patch-provider. That incoherency and pulls in different directions can
> also turn off potential contributors.

I wonder if the maillist method of patches and reviews is just to brittle. Is there any consideration to using a code review tool... perhaps review board or something else. This way the submitting and management of patches is more centralized than the disjointed threads on a mail list.

> We talked about these issues, and how we could provide "mentors" to
> work with people that arrive with patches. A person would be volunteer
> to work with the patcher, and provide a single point of
> contact/review.

That sounds like a good idea... but it also disrupts the distributed nature of an open source team. That mentor may get hung up with real life work or be unavailable, or in a different time zone...etc.

> Of course, do we have enough people willing and able to fill that
> role? (if that is even the best way!)

Oh yea... what I just said... you said too.

BOb
Received on 2010-04-09 17:24:51 CEST