These are some interesting and varied points. There are clear problems with the way patches are handled. From my own perspective, I devote my own time to the project doing what interests me. Occasionally that's reviewing bugs, and most of the time it's not.
For the given example, (http://trac.habariproject.org/habari/ticket/727) I have no personal interest in offering ways for other libraries to work around jQuery's use of $. It seems reasonable that there are going to be patches about which any single developer is ambivalent. It also seems reasonable that there are going to be patches that would take more time to test than a committer is willing or available to give. I'm not sure how that jives with a desire to have objective or even subjective concerns voiced with every ticket. I don't believe that committers should review and commit code solely based on whether it works, excluding whether its goal is worthwhile. Some patches that are useful at face value merit much more discovery and contemplation. Unfortunately, patches are often supplied with a single intent, not considering the effect of the patch on the rest of the code, just on the achievement of that specific goal. When told to consider their patch in terms of the whole project, the patch providers frequently take personal insult to the comment, or insist that just because the patch works to achieve that single goal, it's enough to pass review. These things make it hard to perpetually review all patches. What can I personally do to improve the situation? Would a +1/-1 and short comment from me on both intent and implementation on every patch be useful? Would it be acceptable to comment that I don't have time to do a complete code review? I'm not entirely sure everyone would enjoy me (or me alone) reviewing all the code. I don't have a simple answer to the problem, and perhaps it's gotten like this because the solution isn't simply arrived at. Concerning this situation, what's worse to me is that everyone complains, but nobody does anything. Perhaps people expect the current situation to improve simply by pointing out that something is wrong. It's really easy to whine that things are done wrong. It's easy to point fingers and make accusations. I don't even deny that things are done poorly now, but communities like the one I would like to foster for Habari are reciprocal. You put effort into building the community, and as a result the community improves. Where you want to see change, be the instrument of change. Present a solution, get some agreement, take charge of it, see it through. If that's the intent of starting this thread, then that's great. I feel that only by offering potential solutions, rather than solely pointing out the problems, will the situation improve. Geoffrey, I think you're a brilliant guy. I think you have a grasp of certain technologies that we'd be hard pressed to find in anyone else. I value your contribution to the project, even if I personally think much of the code you provide is premature for our use (I'd like to see things working more than I'd like to see them conforming to standards, which I think is what puts us at odds most of the time). I agree that your contributions have been much more than some current members of the cabal. I'm not sure what conclusion I should draw from all of that, except that if you have a complaint then you must also have some suggested path to resolution. I would love to hear your remedy to the problem you've highlighted. Please suggest some doable steps we can take to improve the operation of the project. I don't expect to blindly follow every suggestion (especially when some simple-minded suggestions in the past have been to commit every supplied patch, which I wouldn't do outright for at least the reasons I've mentioned above), but I think if we work together we can come up with something. Owen --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/habari-dev -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
