Re: [boost] Process discussions

Subject: Re: [boost] Process discussions
From: Dean Michael Berris (mikhailberis_at_[hidden])
Date: 2011-01-31 05:06:58

On Mon, Jan 31, 2011 at 5:35 PM, John Maddock <boost.regex_at_[hidden]> wrote:
>>> Maybe I suggest that for some time, we outright ban freeform discussion
>>> about
>>> process, and instead, we restrict them to threads started by a Boost
>>> developers
>>> and saying this: "I am maintainer of X, and had N commits and M trac
>>> changes
>>> in the last year. I most hate P1, P2 and P3. I would propose that we use
>>> T1,
>>> T2, and T3 to fix that". Then, everybody could join to suggest better
>>> way of fixing P1, P2 and P3 -- without making up other supposed problems.
>>>
>>> Thoughts?
>>>
>>
>> Not to sound like a sour grape, but this is precisely the attitude
>> that makes the Boost project so unwelcoming. Sometimes I wonder why I
>> personally even bother trying to contribute.
>
> Ugh?
>

/me should have a better thought to writing translator...

What I meant here is that:

Boost seems unwelcoming at first because of the "rules" and even the
notion of "banning discussions". This hasn't stopped me from trying to
contribute and therefore I wonder why it hasn't (maybe it's me).

> I think the thing is this: most folks around here just don't really care
> about tools - they really don't - they just want to "get stuff done".
>

I thought because people want to get stuff done that they would care
about the tools they use and whether they're using the right tool or
whether the tools are making them effective.

> Please bare in mind too that if the effort that has been expended on this
> discussion had been expended on bug fixing instead, we could have got an
> awful lot done...
>

Hmmm... See, I would agree with you except that there's currently just
so many hands/people to fix things, and those who want to be able to
help see this barrier of having to go through Trac and checking out
with SVN and waiting for the network updates to finish.

The only reason we're even having this discussion about the process
and the tools is because some contributor wannabe like me feels this
drag when I try to make progress on some front. I have access to the
Sandbox sure, but even working on the sandbox now is just painful for
me compared to how I deal with the development of cpp-netlib which is
on git.

Note at the same time I complain I send in the patches through Trac/ML
anyway. I'm just saying it could all be so much easier than the way
it's going now and short of suggesting a different process, I don't
see how I can help accomplish that goal of making things much easier
to do.

HTH

-- 
Dean Michael Berris
about.me/deanberris