I’m favour of all that’s outlined here. Thanks for getting this written up, Joan!
Best Jan — > On 5. Feb 2019, at 19:27, Joan Touzet <woh...@apache.org> wrote: > > Hi everyone, > > One thing that has plagued the CouchDB project for a while is the > introduction of new features without much discussion prior to the > feature landing. > > To put all the cards on the table: it is good that IBM/Cloudant have > been benevolent and have contributed significant new functionality with > every recent release of CouchDB. Some highlights include: > > 2.0: clustering code (née bigcouch) > 2.1: replication scheduler > 2.2: pluggable storage engines > 2.3: clustered purge > > However, most of these features landed as PRs on the CouchDB repository > already complete, or at the very least, with the design process already > finished, with only implementation details remaining. In at least a > couple of the cases, the PRs were so large that any review by > non-Cloudant people was effectively impossible. And, of course, by the > time the PR lands, any prototype implementations that would have > informed the final PR (and helped understand how it works) are not > visible or available. Further, documentation is often lacking at this > stage, though increasingly I see excellent README.md files placed at the > top of each OTP application that are especially welcome. > > This needs to change. > > Fortunately, the Internet has a good precedent for dealing with this > very issue: the RFC[1]. While we don't need the entire pomp and > circumstance workflow that follows the RFC, we can certainly steal that > nice template. > > I've taken a pass at adapting the RFC template to GitHub's and > CouchDB's needs (PRs welcome): > > > https://raw.githubusercontent.com/apache/couchdb/master/.github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE/rfc.md > > https://github.com/apache/couchdb/issues/new?labels=rfc%2C+discussion&template=rfc.md > > I believe this template is not onerous to fill out, and if it contained > sufficient detail on the proposal, would give committers enough knowledge > to be able to make informed decisions about the proposal - i.e., vote on > it. > > > I propose the PMC REQUIRE this template for any substantial change to > CouchDB's HTTP API, or its behaviour. > > I propose developers SHOULD use this template for any change to > CouchDB's HTTP API or behaviour, even small ones. > > I propose developers COULD use this template for any minor change to > CouchDB, but it's unnecessary if it's something like a debug interface, > a config file improvement, etc. Documentation and Fauxton changes would > likely be exempt from this workflow, too. > > > I imagine the workflow being like this: > > * [DISCUSS]ions like the ones happening now for FDB happen on the list. > > * Consensus starts to be reached, or, at the very least, the important > advantages and disadvantages of the proposal have been clarified. > > * A filled-in RFC is filed in GH Issues. > > * (Optional.) A bot watches for issues of this type and forwards notice > of them to dev@. This becomes a [PROPOSAL] per our bylaws at that > point. > > * Committers formally vote +1/+0.5/0/-0.5/-1 on the proposal in GH. > > * (Optional.) A bot could close the vote and sum the responses from > committers, emailing the results to dev@. > > * Repeat if necessary (because the RFC gets rewritten/improved, etc.) > > Note the only two new steps are 1) ensuring that we actually HAVE the > discussion on the mailing list about the proposed change; and 2) a new > template we should use for these major changes, which itself should help > make understanding the proposal and the voting process smoother. > > For me, the question that remains is: at what point do we REQUIRE the > proposed RFC process to be followed? When is a change "substantial?" And > I think that it may be sufficient at this point to leave it grey-area, > with the PMC weighing in as a group if necessary. (The easiest thing to > do is to simply say "do the RFC anyway," because if any proposal is > sufficiently unclear as to not be easily translatable into an RFC, then > it is probably too weak of a proposal to stand muster without one.) > > One other question is whether or not we add a new decision type to our > decision matrix in the Bylaws for this. Our rules are somewhat unclear > here, since this is both a technical and a non-technical decision, > meaning it probably defaults over to our non-technical decision type. > That type is lazy majority, with committers being given binding votes, > but importantly does NOT allow for vetoes (blocking -1 votes). (I have > one other topic for the Bylaws mailing, which will be separate, so we > can pick up this discusison in that thread if desired.) > > Thoughts? > > -Joan "evolve or perish!" Touzet > > [1]: https://www.ietf.org/standards/rfcs/ -- Professional Support for Apache CouchDB: https://neighbourhood.ie/couchdb-support/
