[GitHub] [arrow] wesm commented on a change in pull request #7520: ARROW-9189: [Website] Improve contributor guide

[GitBox]

wesm commented on a change in pull request #7520:
URL: https://github.com/apache/arrow/pull/7520#discussion_r444288120



##
File path: docs/source/developers/contributing.rst
##
@@ -124,29 +181,72 @@ To contribute a patch:
   `ARROW-767: [C++] Filesystem abstraction 
`_).
 * Make sure that your code passes the unit tests. You can find instructions how
   to run the unit tests for each Arrow component in its respective README file.
+
+Core developers and others with a stake in the part of the project your change
+affects will review, request changes, and hopefully indicate their approval
+in the end. To make the review process smooth for everyone, try to
+
+* Break your work into small, single-purpose patches if possible. It’s much
+  harder to merge in a large change with a lot of disjoint features, and
+  particularly if you're new to the project, smaller changes are much easier
+  for maintainers to accept.
 * Add new unit tests for your code.
+* Follow the style guides for the part(s) of the project you're modifying.
+  Some languages (C++, Python, and Rust, for example) run a lint check in
+  continuous integration. For all languages, see their respective developer
+  documentation and READMEs for style guidance. In general, try to make it look
+  as if the codebase has a single author, and emulate any conventions you see,
+  whether or not they are officially documented or checked.
+
+When tests are passing and the pull request has been approved by the interested
+parties, a committer will merge the pull request. This is done with a
+command-line utility that does a squash merge, so all of your commits will be
+registered as a single commit to the master branch; this simplifies the
+connection between JIRA issues and commits, and it makes it easier to bisect
+history to identify where changes were introduced. A side effect of this way of
+merging is that your pull request will appear in the GitHub interface to have
+been "closed without merge". Do not be alarmed: if you look at the bottom, you
+will see a message that says "@user closed this in $COMMIT".
+
+Local git conventions
++
+
+If you are tracking the Arrow source repository locally, here are some tips
+for using ``git``.
+
+All Arrow contributors work off of their personal fork of ``apache/arrow``
+and submit pull requests "upstream". Once you've cloned your fork of Arrow,
+be sure to::
+
+$ git remote add upstream https://github.com/apache/arrow
+
+to set the "upstream" repository.
+
+You are encouraged to develop on branches, rather than your own "master" 
branch,
+and it helps to keep your fork's master branch synced with ``upstream/master``.
 
-Thank you in advance for your contributions!
+To start a new branch, pull the latest from upstream first::
 
-Common Git conventions followed within the project
---
+   $ git fetch upstream
+   $ git checkout master
+   $ git reset --hard upstream/master
+   $ git checkout -b $NEW_BRANCH_NAME
 
-If you are tracking the Arrow source repository locally, following some common 
Git
-conventions would make everyone's workflow compatible.  These recommendations 
along with
-their rationale are outlined below.
+It does not matter what you call your branch. Some people like to use the JIRA
+number as branch name, others use descriptive names.
 
-It is strongly discouraged to use a regular ``git merge``, as a linear commit 
history is
-prefered by the project.  It is much easier to maintain, and makes for easier
-``cherry-picking`` of features; useful for backporting fixes to maintenance 
releases.
+Once you have a branch going, you should sync with ``upstream/master``
+regularly, as many commits merge to master every day.
+It is recommended to use ``git rebase`` rather than ``git merge``.

Review comment:
   FWIW at large organizations like Google, PRs (which are called 
"changelists") with more than one commit are not accepted. Every proposed patch 
must be a single rebased commit (this is tightly integrated with Gerrit, 
Google's code review system). I would be much happier using Gerrit than GitHub 
PRs because of the incremental code diffing system -- once you experience it, 
it is difficult to go back. 





This is an automated message from the Apache Git Service.
To respond to the message, please log on to GitHub and use the
URL above to go to the specific comment.

For queries about this service, please contact Infrastructure at:
us...@infra.apache.org

[GitHub] [arrow] wesm commented on a change in pull request #7520: ARROW-9189: [Website] Improve contributor guide

[GitBox]

wesm commented on a change in pull request #7520:
URL: https://github.com/apache/arrow/pull/7520#discussion_r444285972



##
File path: docs/source/developers/contributing.rst
##
@@ -124,29 +181,72 @@ To contribute a patch:
   `ARROW-767: [C++] Filesystem abstraction 
`_).
 * Make sure that your code passes the unit tests. You can find instructions how
   to run the unit tests for each Arrow component in its respective README file.
+
+Core developers and others with a stake in the part of the project your change
+affects will review, request changes, and hopefully indicate their approval
+in the end. To make the review process smooth for everyone, try to
+
+* Break your work into small, single-purpose patches if possible. It’s much
+  harder to merge in a large change with a lot of disjoint features, and
+  particularly if you're new to the project, smaller changes are much easier
+  for maintainers to accept.
 * Add new unit tests for your code.
+* Follow the style guides for the part(s) of the project you're modifying.
+  Some languages (C++, Python, and Rust, for example) run a lint check in
+  continuous integration. For all languages, see their respective developer
+  documentation and READMEs for style guidance. In general, try to make it look
+  as if the codebase has a single author, and emulate any conventions you see,
+  whether or not they are officially documented or checked.
+
+When tests are passing and the pull request has been approved by the interested
+parties, a committer will merge the pull request. This is done with a
+command-line utility that does a squash merge, so all of your commits will be
+registered as a single commit to the master branch; this simplifies the
+connection between JIRA issues and commits, and it makes it easier to bisect
+history to identify where changes were introduced. A side effect of this way of
+merging is that your pull request will appear in the GitHub interface to have
+been "closed without merge". Do not be alarmed: if you look at the bottom, you
+will see a message that says "@user closed this in $COMMIT".
+
+Local git conventions
++
+
+If you are tracking the Arrow source repository locally, here are some tips
+for using ``git``.
+
+All Arrow contributors work off of their personal fork of ``apache/arrow``
+and submit pull requests "upstream". Once you've cloned your fork of Arrow,
+be sure to::
+
+$ git remote add upstream https://github.com/apache/arrow
+
+to set the "upstream" repository.
+
+You are encouraged to develop on branches, rather than your own "master" 
branch,
+and it helps to keep your fork's master branch synced with ``upstream/master``.
 
-Thank you in advance for your contributions!
+To start a new branch, pull the latest from upstream first::
 
-Common Git conventions followed within the project
---
+   $ git fetch upstream
+   $ git checkout master
+   $ git reset --hard upstream/master
+   $ git checkout -b $NEW_BRANCH_NAME
 
-If you are tracking the Arrow source repository locally, following some common 
Git
-conventions would make everyone's workflow compatible.  These recommendations 
along with
-their rationale are outlined below.
+It does not matter what you call your branch. Some people like to use the JIRA
+number as branch name, others use descriptive names.
 
-It is strongly discouraged to use a regular ``git merge``, as a linear commit 
history is
-prefered by the project.  It is much easier to maintain, and makes for easier
-``cherry-picking`` of features; useful for backporting fixes to maintenance 
releases.
+Once you have a branch going, you should sync with ``upstream/master``
+regularly, as many commits merge to master every day.
+It is recommended to use ``git rebase`` rather than ``git merge``.

Review comment:
   Resolving conflicts in a PR with merge commits can be a nightmare, 
whereas resolving the same conflicts in a PR that doesn't have the merges is, 
to me, relatively straightforward. Maybe I'm doing something wrong. Very rarely 
have I seen anything good come out of `git merge`
   
   So I think we can say "The project maintainers prefer to handle conflict 
resolution from a rebase standpoint rather than from a merge standpoint. If a 
PR contains merge commits and contains conflicts, then a maintainer may squash 
the changes and rebase them to remove the merge commits."





This is an automated message from the Apache Git Service.
To respond to the message, please log on to GitHub and use the
URL above to go to the specific comment.

For queries about this service, please contact Infrastructure at:
us...@infra.apache.org

[GitHub] [arrow] wesm commented on a change in pull request #7520: ARROW-9189: [Website] Improve contributor guide

[GitBox]

wesm commented on a change in pull request #7520:
URL: https://github.com/apache/arrow/pull/7520#discussion_r443914793



##
File path: docs/source/developers/contributing.rst
##
@@ -17,53 +17,73 @@
 
 .. _contributing:
 
-***
-Contribution Guidelines
-***
+
+Contributing to Apache Arrow
+
 
-There are many ways to contribute to Apache Arrow:
+Thanks for your interest in the Apache Arrow project. Arrow is a large project
+and may seem overwhelming when you're first getting involved.
+Contributing code is great, but that's probably not the first place to start.
+There are lots of ways to make valuable contributions to the project and
+community.
 
-* Contributing code (we call them "patches")
-* Writing documentation (another form of code, in a way)
-* Participating in discussions on `JIRA 
`_ or the `mailing list 
`_
-* Helping users of the libraries
-* Reporting bugs and asking questions
+This page provides some orientation for how to get involved. It also offers
+some recommendations on how to get best results when engaging with the
+community.
 
-Mailing List
-
+Join the mailing lists
+==
 
+A good first step to getting involved in the Arrow project is to join the
+mailing lists and participate in discussions where you can.
 Projects in The Apache Software Foundation ("the ASF") use public, archived
 mailing lists to create a public record of each project's development
-activities and decision-making process. As such, all contributors generally
-must be subscribed to the d...@arrow.apache.org mailing list to participate in
-the community.
+activities and decision-making process.
+While lacking the immediacy of chat or other forms of communication,
+the mailing lists give participants the opportunity to slow down and be
+thoughtful in their responses, and they help developers who are spread across
+many timezones to participate more equally.

Review comment:
   Good. 

##
File path: docs/source/developers/contributing.rst
##
@@ -76,46 +96,83 @@ visibility. They may add a "Fix version" to indicate that 
they're considering
 it for inclusion in the next release, though adding that tag is not a
 commitment that it will be done in the next release.
 
-Advanced use
-
-
-Once you are involved in the project and want to do more on JIRA, such as
-assign yourself an issue, you will need "Contributor" permissions on the
-Apache Arrow JIRA. To get this role, ask on the mailing list for a project
-maintainer's help.
-
-GitHub issues
--
-
-We support `GitHub issues `_ as a
-lightweight way to ask questions and engage with
-the Arrow developer community. We use JIRA for maintaining a queue of
-development work and as the public record for work on the project. So, feel
-free to open GitHub issues, but bugs and feature requests will eventually need
-to end up in JIRA, either before or after completing a pull request. Don't be
-surprised if you are immediately asked by a project maintainer to open a JIRA
-issue.
-
-How to contribute patches
-=
-
-We prefer to receive contributions in the form of GitHub pull requests. Please
-send pull requests against the `github.com/apache/arrow
-`_ repository following the procedure below.
-
-If you are looking for some ideas on what to contribute, check out the JIRA
-issues for the Apache Arrow project. Comment on the issue and/or contact
-d...@arrow.apache.org with your questions and ideas.
-
-If you’d like to report a bug but don’t have time to fix it, you can still post
-it on JIRA, or email the mailing list d...@arrow.apache.org.
+Tips for successful bug reports

+
+No one likes having bugs in their software, and in an ideal world, all bugs
+would get fixed as soon as they were reported. However, time and attention are
+finite, especially in an open-source project where most contributors are
+participating in their spare time. In order for your bug to get prompt

Review comment:
   May be worth emphasizing here that all contributors in Apache projects 
are volunteers and act as individuals, even if they are contributing to the 
project as part of their job responsibilities. 

##
File path: docs/source/developers/contributing.rst
##
@@ -17,53 +17,73 @@
 
 .. _contributing:
 
-***
-Contribution Guidelines
-***
+
+Contributing to Apache Arrow
+
 
-There are many ways to contribute to Apache Arrow:
+Thanks for your interest in the Apache Arrow project. Arrow is a large project
+and may seem overwhelming when you're first getting involved.