[Python-Dev] Apache process (was: Python 1.6 status)

[Guido van Rossum]

> Somebody proposes that a person is added to the list of people with
> checkin privileges. If nobody else in the group vetoes that, then they're
> in (their system doesn't require continual participation by each member,
> so it can only operate at a veto level, rather than a unanimous assent).
> It is basically determined on the basis of merit -- has the person been
> active (on the Apache developer's mailing list) and has the person
> contributed something significant? Further, by providing commit access,
> will they further the goals of Apache? And, of course, does their
> temperament seem to fit in with the other group members?

This makes sense, but I have one concern: if somebody who isn't liked
very much (say a capable hacker who is a real troublemaker) asks for
privileges, would people veto this?  I'd be reluctant to go on record
as veto'ing a particular person.  (E.g. there are a few troublemakers
in c.l.py, and I would never want them to join python-dev let alone
give them commit privileges, but I'm not sure if I would want to
discuss this on a publicly archived mailing list -- or even on a
privately archived mailing list, given that the number of members
might be in the hundreds.

[...stuff I like...]

> I'll note that the process works very well given that diffs are emailed. I
> doubt that it would be effective if people had to fetch CVS diffs
> themselves.

That's a great idea; I'll see if we can do that to our checkin email,
regardless of whether we hand out commit privileges.

> Your note also implies "areas of ownership". This doesn't really exist
> within Apache. There aren't even "primary authors" or things like that. I
> have the ability/rights to change any portions: from the low-level
> networking, to the documentation, to the server-side include processing.

But that's Apache, which is explicitly run as a collective.  In
Python, I definitely want to have ownership of certain sections of the
code.  But I agree that this doesn't need to be formalized by access
control lists; the social process you describe sounds like it will
work just fine.

--Guido van Rossum (home page: http://www.python.org/~guido/)