[Python-Dev] Encouraging developers

[Jeremy Hylton]

On 3/6/07, Georg Brandl <g.brandl at gmx.net> wrote:
> Raymond Hettinger schrieb:
> > [Phil Thompson]
> >> I think a lot of people care, but many can't
> >> do anything about because the barrier to entry is too great.
> >
> > Do you mean commit priviledges?  ISTM, those tend to be
> > handed out readily to people who assert that they have good use for them.
> > Ask the Georg-bot how readily he was accepted and coached.  IMO,
> > his acceptance was a model that all open source projects should aspire to.
>
> Indeed. For me, it wasn't "hard" to get tracker rights. I reviewed some patches,
> commented on bugs, posted suggestions to python-dev etc. When I asked about
> tracker rights on python-dev, they were given to me.
> Then, it wasn't "hard" to get commit rights. I contributed some stuff, and
> after a while I asked about commit rights on python-dev, and they were given
> to me on condition that I still let a core dev review inteded changes.
>
> As far as I recall, there has been nearly no one who asked for commit rights
> recently, so why complain that the entry barrier is too great? Surely you
> cannot expect python-dev to got out and say "would you like to have commit
> privileges?"...

You can ask whether we should have a plan for increasing the number of
developers, actively seeking out new developers, and mentoring people
who express interest.  Would the code be better if we had more good
developers working on it?  Would we get more bugs fixed and patches
closed?  If so, it wouldn't hurt to have some deliberate strategy for
bringing new developers in.  I can easily imagine someone spending a
lot of time mentoring and a little time coding, but having a bigger
impact that someone who only wrote code.

Jeremy