[Twisted-Python] Twisted Project Jobs Volunteer

Corbin Simpson mostawesomedude at gmail.com
Mon Nov 14 13:48:04 EST 2011


On Mon, Nov 14, 2011 at 10:44 AM, Corbin Simpson
<mostawesomedude at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Mon, Nov 14, 2011 at 10:33 AM, Glyph <glyph at twistedmatrix.com> wrote:
>> On Nov 14, 2011, at 6:55 AM, Tim Allen wrote:
>>
>> It's very well to say "make git mirror, push to Github, get new
>> contributors", but I think there's a social impedance mismatch here
>> that's going to cause problems, or at least make people wary because
>> Twisted's Github project behaves weirdly and differently from other
>> Github projects they're used to.
>>
>> You're right, of course, but lots of other projects (Django comes to mind)
>> have a Github presence without using Github or Git as their primary
>> development tool.  See here: <https://github.com/django>.
>> We already have <https://github.com/twisted>, it's just broken; despite the
>> brokenness it has 14 watchers and 5 forks _anyway_, so clearly people want
>> to use it.  This is definitely worse than having a mirror that was updated
>> and working correctly.
>>
>> I've not forgotten that I have/had Twisted commit access, and coming
>> back to help on a more regular basis is definitely on my list of things
>> to do, although it's pushed down a fair way at the moment.  However,
>> even "volunteer for Twisted" was right at the top of the list, I'd be
>> a mug to sign up for such an open-ended responsibility. :)
>>
>> Welcome to open source.  It's all a never-ending thankless slog :-).
>> Really the most important thing here though is just to get the automatic
>> mirroring initially set up, not the never-ending ambassadorial work.  That
>> way git users wouldn't _need_ elaborate instructions as to what to clone and
>> how; if we just say "get twisted from github" and have that automatically
>> updated it would be easier for everyone.
>
> JP asked me to say something, so...
>
> I come from FreeDesktop. We have a git-driven development process
> which doesn't depend on Github. There is a cgit
> (http://hjemli.net/git/cgit/about/) instance running on fd.o
> (http://cgit.freedesktop.org/) which covers everybody's personal and
> project repos.
>
> The contribution process is simple and straightforward. Patches are
> sent in through the project mailing lists. People can also send
> patches through auxiliary channels like pastebins and IRC or the
> Bugzilla, although that's discouraged. When contributors become
> prolific enough, they can apply for account access, which lets them
> host repos on fd.o through the magic of userdirs. Code is meritocratic
> and community-based; when in doubt, a committer can ask for code
> review. It varies from project to project; fd.o is a *big* umbrella.
> Branches are very common for contested or complex changes; look at
> e.g. mesa/mesa for an example of

Boy, thanks Gmail. I really appreciated that.

Anyway, mesa/mesa has dozens upon dozens of branches. Just like
Twisted. It works well.

So, Github adds *zero* fun to this. Its issue tracker is roughly as
unfun as Bugzilla. Pull requests are frustrating; I find myself just
pulling their code using standard git tools and ignoring the
auto-merge tool. I don't really enjoy having messages sent to me
*through* Github when we could just use email, like civilized people.
I view Github as a source of bandwidth and space to avoid having to
host my numerous personal repositories on a personal server. It's a
convenience and crutch. TM is not short of resources; there certainly
could be a git.tm.com or cgit.tm.com and userdir-powered repositories.
Admittedly, this is at odds with the current direction towards LP and
Bazaar, but I think it's a lot better than letting us rely on Github.

~ C.

> --
> When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir? ~ Keynes
>
> Corbin Simpson
> <MostAwesomeDude at gmail.com>
>



-- 
When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir? ~ Keynes

Corbin Simpson
<MostAwesomeDude at gmail.com>



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