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Patching etiquette

From: Files <files_at_poetryunlimited.com>
Date: 2003-08-25 18:46:33 CEST

Philip Martin (philip@codematters.co.uk) wrote:
>
>"Files" <files@poetryunlimited.com> writes:
>
>
>So that's one single email, and it appears to me that your patch was
>incomplete. The Subversion project generates thousands of emails
>every month, why should anyone be interested in a single email from
>the issue tracker about a patch that's not finished? Did you ever
>follow up with another email? Did you ever post the patch to the dev
>list? Did you ever attach the patch to the issue? Did you ever even
>finish the patch?

I finished the patch and ended up using the thing, but wasn't sure if someone was
going to get upset at me for trying to step on toes if someone else was already
working on it.

When I was told it was inapplicable, I figured there was no use for it except just
for me. Why go out of my way to help someone that has basically said, "no thanks,
don't need your help". That's a quick way to make people mad.

You can't make someone fix something just because you think it needs to be.
Therefore I asked after I had gotten a working prototype, which I proceeded to use.

I figured at that point I had to live with the problem. Since there was nothing out
there that was better.

I was very disappointed to find that someone had fixed the problem later, when a
big company had reported it without a fix. I felt like someone had wasted timet hey
could have spent doing something more useful. Money down the drain. All that good
stuff.

Being a subversion "newbie" I figured I would upset the pecking order by attempting
to post the solution without asking permission first.

>
>> It took Perl.com reporting the same problem for you guys to fix it
>> yourselves.
>>
>> That's the real meat of the problem.
>>
>> When someone is posting an issue WITH a solution, is it time to say
>> "This is inapplicable in this release"????
>>
>> I specifically asked if you wanted it or if someone was working on
>> it.
>
>If you want to have a patch reviewed then read the HACKING file, write
>a log message, post the log message and patch to the dev list. Why do
>you expect someone to ask for it? Why didn't you post it?

Figured asking if someone wanted it was the polite way of making sure I wasn't
duplicating someone's effort and wasn't overriding their investment into whatever
portion was going to fix it. Personally, I'm not married to my code. I know a lot
of people that are. So it's safer to ask.

I was attempting to be polite and courteous. Guess I needed to be more pushy?

The "Here's the fix, go use it approach?"

Shamim Islam
Subversion Mailing Lists For Dummies Future Author (LOL)

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Received on Mon Aug 25 18:47:39 2003

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