I’ve made these points before in different posts, but let me summarize them in a way that is maybe a bit unfair, but sums it up to me as an active contributor to qooxdoo-contrib:
As it stands now, I think the contrib system ist broken. This claim is corroborated, I think, by the fact that there haven’t been very many new contributions since the system was last overhauled, and most contributions are outdated and might not be working with current versions of qooxdoo. 1) using the generator to create up-to-date contribution skeletons doesn’t work, as the skeleton does not create a working skeleton [1] 2) the workflow needed to add or update a contribution is needlessly complicated [2] 3) despite the complicated workflow, which requires active involvement of the core devs, there is no system that checks whether newly contribute, updated or existing contrib do even work as planned [3] If the qooxdoo devs care for contributions from the community, I strongly believe that the system needs an overhaul that needs to combine the strengths of the old Sourceforge-based system with the good ideas of the new system, drops the complexities and adds automated services: - Provide a one-time authorization for contributors which then can add or update contribs (this was possible under the SF/SVN system). Having to send pull requests for the contrib registry etc. is just a big pain. One idea could be to allow „proven“ contributors access to the contrib registry. - Drop the checksum stuff. - Fix the contribution skeleton, don’t drop it. On the contrary, make the contrib skeleton mandatory. This is not a big deal for contributors, and allows automation - Provide automated building of all contributions and publishing of the contributions in the contrib demo browser. - (Optionally) automatically alert developers if building fails Given the excellent tool chain and build process that exists in qooxdoo, this is all possible relatively easy [4] In my opinion, the qooxdoo developers need to decide: if they place any value on the contributions of the community, they should invest at least some time to make the contrib system appealing and workable. In this case, place yourself in the position of a potential contributor, and evaluate the system not according what suits you best as core developers, but according to what makes it easy and fun to contribute. lf that is not your priority, it would be better to make this clear and not to even advertise the contribs - the current choice of contribs is very poor, since most are outdated, and make a rather bad impression. Excuse my rant, but I am increasingly frustrated with the system and I think a big opportunity is missed if things stay the way they are. I am happy to be proven wrong... Best, Christian [1] http://qooxdoo.678.n2.nabble.com/create-application-py-t-contribution-and-quot-trunk-quot-folder-td7586114.html [2] http://qooxdoo.678.n2.nabble.com/New-contrib-website-td7585740.html [3] See, for example, my own TokenField contrib, which I never tested as a download, but only locally. [4] http://qooxdoo.678.n2.nabble.com/contrib-2-0-infrastructure-td7585559.html -- View this message in context: http://qooxdoo.678.n2.nabble.com/qooxdoo-contrib-again-tp7586131.html Sent from the qooxdoo mailing list archive at Nabble.com. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Slashdot TV. Video for Nerds. Stuff that matters. http://tv.slashdot.org/ _______________________________________________ qooxdoo-devel mailing list qooxdoo-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/qooxdoo-devel
