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

Subject: Re: [boost] There's a serious problem with the Boost Community :(
From: Vladimir Prus (vladimir_at_[hidden])
Date: 2009-07-31 03:43:02

Jon Biggar wrote:

> That said, here's the problem: simple patches submitted languish without
>   action or response for far too long.  I submitted a patch for bjam
> with ticket #2552 back in November, including test cases to verify that
> it operates correctly.  But despite requesting over several release
> cycles since then, no action has been taken and I haven't even gotten a
> response.
...
> 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.

The fundamental matter is that "Boost Community", or rather 
"Boost Developers Community" does not exist. With 90 libraries, no single
person has enough knowledge to apply patches to all of them. In fact, it's
not even possible to have a single person oversee issue workflow, like
ensuring response within specific time. This might be a problem, but
frankly, no open-source project I worked with generally has such procedures,
for similar reasons.

I am afraid that the only way to guarantee a patch is in is to ping it
if it's not applied after reasonable time. While you have pinged it once,
recently, unfortunately the person the issue is assigned to was on vacation.

- Volodya

P.S. BTW, and this applies to everybody -- if you refer to an issue, please
always include a description, like #1 (test issue). Referring just to issue
number assumes that everybody remember what every issue is about.