[Patches] Patch management (was: Warnings in pythonrun.c)

Tim Peters tim_one@email.msn.com
Thu, 22 Jun 2000 21:38:43 -0400


[Andrew M. Kuchling]
> While you're all admiring the difficulty of the problem, how about
> actually checking in the pythonrun.c patch, assuming it's reasonable?

I can't yet.  Be my guest!

> <flame>
>
> Frankly, I don't think the current mailing list is broken, *as long as
> patches are handled with reasonable speed* so that the backlog doesn't
> build up.

Andrew, this is saying that if it didn't display all the symptoms of
illness, it wouldn't be sick.  The consistent (this started long before
Guido's honeymoon!) lack of timely action here *is* the brokenness.

> That hasn't been done, and I don't understand why.

Why didn't you check in the pythonrun.c patch?  Multiply by 10 people and
100 patches.  There are no mechanisms in a mailing list for assigning,
recording or checking responsibility, neither for recording or querying
disposition status.  Nobody owns any part of the problem now, and it's
extraordinarly difficult to determine the status of any particular patch you
may be interested in via this mish-mash of archived all-topic email
scattered across patches and python-dev.

Prior to this mailing list, Guido owned every problem and the database was
in his head.  I think it's the lack of the "owned" and "database" parts
we're suffering from here, not especially the lack of the "Guido" part.
SourceForge provides rudimentary mechanisms for both of the former; a Python
replacement for Guido is one of BeOpen's highest secret priorities <wink>.

> ...
> Worrying about patch management mechanism, while more patches pile up
> and are ignored in the meantime, is not going to help and will just
> results in continued stagnation.

At an all-hands PythonLabs group mtg today, it was decided to move patch
activity to SourceForge and kill the patches list.  I'll send more about
that later.  There is absolutely nothing new stopping checkins while the
move to the SourceForge patch manager is in progress, so if the patches
continue to pile up it's certainly not the move's fault.  If the pythonrun.c
patch is still sitting untouched after the move, I'll assign it to you <0.7
wink>.

the-only-one-working-on-the-move-is-me-and-i-haven't-done-a-checkin-
    yet-anyway-ly y'rs  - tim