[Python-Dev] Moving bugs and patches through the pipeline more quickly

[Martin v. Loewis]

Skip Montanaro <skip@pobox.com> writes:

> As the Python user base grows I think we do need a way to expand the
> developer pool without a lot of effort because the amount of feedback is
> always going to be proportional to the number of users.  It's not
> immediately obvious to me how this should happen.  

I think people should be encouraged to comment on bugs and
patches. I'll recognize an educated comment when I see it. E.g. if
there is a patch where the first comment says "change this for that
reason", the second comment says "what about documentation", and the
third is "ok, I've implemented all these requirements", then I'm
willing to apply the patch without any deeper analysis.

People who submit loads of patches *and comment on other people's
patches* should be given write permissions on the CVS eventually. It
is critical that not only those who care about their own stuff become
involved, but in particular those which are interested in general
maintainance. That, of course, applies to the current set of
contributors already: anybody on this list is encouraged to review
patches and bug-reports.

Also, I worry about patches much more than about bug reports. If
people don't see their bug reports answered, they might start fixing
the problems themselves, and get involved. If they don't see their
patches answered, they may lose faith.

> There are people here with experience in other large(r) open source
> projects (Perl, Apache, Mozilla).  How do they handle this problem?

Speaking from GCC experience: they don't. There is a huge backlog of
unreviewed patches, even though GCC gives access to CVS more
generously (there is a special "write after approval" category of
developers, so that maintainers don't have to worry about integrating
a patch after it has been approved).

Regards,
Martin