Re: [boost] There's a serious problem with the Boost Community :(

Subject: Re: [boost] There's a serious problem with the Boost Community :(
From: joel (joel.falcou_at_[hidden])
Date: 2009-07-31 03:25:41

Jon Biggar wrote:
> The Boost Community *really* needs a mechanism to ensure that patches 
> submitted are acknowledged, vetted, and if found worthy, integrated 
> into a release in a timely manner.  Not doing so discourages 
> contribution.
>
> Let me suggest that the Community set up something like the review 
> queue, where a few volunteers could regularly select the next patch, 
> request comments from the community and then champion getting the 
> patch integrated into the next Boost release.  I understand that 
> library owners have a stake in the design vision and integrity of 
> their library's code, so the community will have to figure out a 
> policy where patches with minimal impact on a library's integrity can 
> be quickly integrated without requiring a lot of the primary library 
> owner's or maintainer's time, but will still get integrated or 
> rejected in a timely manner.
I sympathetize with you as it occured to me a few times. I think the 
main problem is mainly the lack of people and/or people's time to do so.
There was a 'Trac Sprint' recently in which we tackled down around 120 
tickets in a week. One of the question that arise from that was indeed 
the need to do this in a timely manner. Other point is the liability of 
the build process that, IIRC, prevent proper 'pacthes' to be shipped 
(Beman or Dave, correct me if I'm saying crap). Maybe the CMake effort 
will make this easier as a whole.

All in all, if such a 'task force' is indeed needed, I'll gladly volunteer.

-- 
___________________________________________
Joel Falcou - Assistant Professor
PARALL Team - LRI - Universite Paris Sud XI
Tel : [phone]