[zeromq-dev] Contribution policy and quality of commits

[Chuck Remes]

On Jan 27, 2012, at 8:56 PM, Martin Lucina wrote:
> 
> I missed a very important point which has been brought up before -
> 
> When patches were sent to the mailing list *before* being committed to the
> libzmq repo, this provided a window of time for voluntary code review and
> discussion.
> 
> This works because there is almost no effort required on the part of
> potential "lurker" reviewers. Email is a "push" system with PUB/SUB
> topic filtering using the human mind; we're really good at this.
> 
> One can lurk on the mailing list, skim threads that one has no opinion on
> or are outside of ones domain expertise. When a relevant thread or *PATCH*
> comes up, you can trivially comment on it.
> 
> This is no longer possible with the current process. I would have to
> actively spend time on
> 
> a) going to the libzmq github page with pull requests
> b) somehow figuring out which I have read, have not read, and which are
> relevant. lots of clicks involved.
> c) commenting on the pull request itself.
> 
> Even then, the PUB/SUB model is broken. Only those people who *actively*
> monitor Github lest they miss some important commit get a chance to review
> it.
> 
> So the current process actually *decreases* the amount of voluntary code
> review that could be provided by the community.

This is a piece that hasn't been completely implemented yet. If you look at the "contributing" doc you will see a bullet point that addresses this topic.

> All pull requests are echoed to the zeromq-dev list and discussions of the patch will happen on the list and/or the github pull request as people like.

Hopefully Pieter can chime in on this. He mentioned on irc a few days ago that someone was working on getting this working (i.e. echoing pull requests to this mailing list) but it is apparently not yet working.

Mato, I understand that you have little desire to join github. I'll volunteer to process any patches that you create. Send them to the list for comment (like before) and I'll handle pulling from your non-github repository and pushing to libzmq.

cr