> > And a "jakarta-style" JSF components project. > > Let's assume we start the "myfaces commons" stuff in the near future, > this "JSF components TLP" could have the following subprojects: > -Tomahawk > -Tobago > -Trinidad > -commons (non-renderkit-goodies) > > Martin, you are the man that know best about Jakarta, what are your > thoughts on that? >
I won't bore you with the details that don't matter in this discussion and I won't state here that I know best, just because I am VP of Jakarta. First of all : - Jakarta is very big with about 109 projects and almost everyone at the ASF is committer, yes even you Matthias. - Jakarta has big PMC. In our scenario committers are not automatically on the PMC (there are projects doing that). Besides the benefits of being on the PMC (legal protection, binding votes on release, etc) you also have the obligation to give oversight to the project you are on the PMC for. Let's sketch a MyFaces scenario, with me as a potential committer. - I send a lot of patches for Trinidad - You get sick and tired of me and start a committer vote, so I can start applying patches myself. - I am a committer on the MyFaces TLP now. Even though I don't care about the JSF impl, I am committer there (ignoring svn karma rules that may have been set up) - If I end up on the PMC I am only interested in representing Trinidad (in fact I am just a Trinidad committer), so in fact I am not representing and giving oversight to the complete MyFaces TLP project. - The disconnect has happened between oversight and what is happening in the project. - Multiply above by many times and also don't assume people end up on the PMC and add a highly moving community to the mix (which means, important people become inactive and some new blood enters. - If a lot of "old timers" become inactive without looking for replacements and keeping the PMC in a good size, projects are going to have a hard time, new people don't have a possibility to make new releases (not enough votes) or don't know how to properly create releases, etc ,etc Not saying this is going to happen to MyFaces, just a scenario that is at Jakarta and also happens at smaller projects. So any symptoms of that are going to emerge at MyFaces, my advice is to fix the situation with going TLP for that subproject or making the PMC healthy again. Another problem with "umbrella" projects is that the board is not aware of any problems, dead code, etc, unless the chair or community writes that in the board report. So in fact you are (unintentionally) hiding possible problems. Hence the huge size of most Jakarta board reports to prevent hiding. Mvgr, Martin
