[Python-Dev] Encouraging developers

[Paul Moore]

On 06/03/07, "Martin v. Löwis" <martin at v.loewis.de> wrote:
> Scott Dial schrieb:
> > While I understand that this tit-for-tat mechanism is meant to ensure
> > participation, I believe in reality it doesn't, as the 400-some
> > outstanding patches you referenced elswhere indicate. I can personally
> > attest to having a patch that is over a year old with no "core
> > developer" having any interest at all with the subject matter. And to be
> > frank, nor did I really, but I saw a problem and was capable of solving
> > it. My lack of caring about the patch means I am not going to beat
> > people over the head to pay attention. This system is broken for someone
> > like me (coder) that just wants to help out (non-coders).
>
> If you don't care that much about the patch, it's not broken. As I said
> before, the number of unreviewed patches has been roughly stable for
> some time now. If the patch is not really important, it may take two
> years now to get it in, but eventually, it will (if you then still are
> interested to work on it to complete it).

Here's a random offer - let me know the patch number for your patch,
and I'll review it. Note that I do *not* consider myself a core
developer, I don't even have the tools these days to build Python
easily - I certainly haven't done so for a while. The likelihood is
that I don't know much about the subject area of your patch, either.
As a final disclaimer, note that I have no commit privilege, so my
review won't result in your patch actually being applied :-)

I'll post the results of my review here, as an example of what a
reviewer needs to look at. If someone wants to distil that into a set
of "how to review a patch" guidelines, then that's great. More
reviewers would be a huge benefit.

I agree that "contributing" feels hard, and often the hard bit is
gaining the attention of the committers. The 5-for-1 offers help this,
and shouldn't be dismissed - it's just that the *other* ways involve
people skills (and so are far harder!!!)

Maybe we should emphasize (again) that reviewing patches is also
contributing, and would be greatly appreciated.

Paul.