On Wed, Jan 4, 2012 at 1:58 PM, Peter Elst <peter.e...@gmail.com> wrote: > is roadmap discussed on > the mailinglist and voted on so there's a bit of structure to what type of > things get worked on rather than a random collection of bug fixes and > non-related features?
There's a couple of principles about working on Apache projects that are at play here, in my opinion. Of course each project has its own personality and its own ways of doing things, but these are common enough to almost be "laws" of the Apache Way: * If it doesn't happen on list it doesn't happen. This doesn't mean we need to vote on everything, but it does mean that ideas, roadmaps, etc. should be discussed on list. That's why I encouraged the ones who are interested in site work to do that communication on list. That way everybody can see it and anybody can participate if they want. It would be bad if someone checked in a large patch he had been discussing privately with two other committers on a forum or IRC without first bringing that discussion to the list. In some senses the list *is* the community. At least it's the official record of it. * Everyone should scratch his/her own itch. No one has authority to dictate what anyone else works on. Of course we all come together as a community to get a release out so pragmatism will sometimes dictate what someone works on. But anyone is generally free to work in whatever part of the code he/she wishes. I think some projects divide their subversion repo into different subprojects and commiters stick to the areas they are experienced with. But I don't think any Apache project would dictate that certain committers are only allowed to work in certain areas. So... to apply that directly to your question: yes, a roadmap should definitely be discussed on list, but it doesn't necessarily need to be voted on. But it's possible that a release might include what seems like "a random collection of bug fixes and non-related features." In fact that situation might be healthy because it means there are a lot of different, diverse people working on different areas of the code simultaneously and they all work together to produce a unified release. Sorry if I'm rambling. Greg
