Re: Github staging and works in progress

On 07/14/2015 08:10 PM, Henry Gomersall wrote:
> As was raised during PR #102 on github, Jan's preference so far has
> been to have PRs that are complete and ready.
>
> I posit that allowing discussion and updates on specific
> implementation is a great feature of github and we should have a
> convention to allow for this, such that a solution can evolve with
> input inside a PR.
>
> @jck's suggestion of doing what neovim do seems like a great idea to
> me:
>
> Prefixing the title with one of the following tags:
>
> |[WIP] - Work In Progress: the PR will change, so while there is no
> immediate need for review, the submitter still might appreciate it.
> [RFC] - Request For Comment: the PR needs reviewing and/or comments.
> [RDY] - Ready: the PR has been reviewed by at least one other person
> and has no outstanding issues. |
>
> Only when the tag is changed to [RDY] is it deemed to be ready for
> inclusion.
>
> It would be great if github had a collaborative staging area, but
> this seems like a good solution to me.
>
> On a similar vein, I've sometimes failed to get useful feedback on
> specific implementations that are distinctly a work in progress, but
> need feedback to proceed. Specifically, issue #68 in which I have
> half of a complete implementation for that particular problem. It's
> distinctly not PR ready, but is a WIP. I'm somewhat disinclined to
> sink any more time into it without some further constructive
> feedback, which I attempted to garner without much success.

Interesting that you mention #68. That can hardly be seen as an
example where it's difficult to engage me in discussions. The
problem rather is, that several people seem unwilling to listen
and unwilling to look at the broader perspective beyond their
own pet feature.

> I feel there is quite a bit that could be done very easily to make
> contributors feel more welcome. A mechanism for better and more
> patient code collaboration for WIPs would go a long way to this end.
> Perhaps if Jan doesn't wish to be involved with this, a second mirror
> repository on github could take on that role.

If it's not clear: my goal is not to make contributors happy. It
is to have users hate me less. In fact that should be obvious and
the difference also.

For every mediocre PR that I accept there will be 1 happy contributor
and hunderds of users that hate me even more.

Moreover, I have had very bad experiences in the past with would-be
contributors whose self-confidence was much higher than their
technological skills. In addition to no interest, I simply have no time for
that anymore. That is a very important pratical limitation which
everyone should simply respect.

What MyHDL needs most in my opinion is not all kinds of new features.
It is full of features that are underutilized and the most important
contribution would be by users publishing about their work. No,
what it needs is a better and more robust implementation. Even though
jck has done a tremendous job in this in 0.9, I feel there is still
a lot that can be done. Such "mundane" hard work gets my first priority
and respect.

As it now has come to the point when a contributor found it appropriate
to insult me for not including his mediocre PR #101, I'd like to reconsider
the whole labeling thing. I fear it may turn the PR area into a dumping
ground on unfinished and dubious work. Like people that think they
solve a problem by sending an email. I prefer not to play a role in that.

I prefer the jck model of the past. Very hard work in the background, and
then I get a PR that is obviously brilliant. Look at those PRs. They are by
far the most complex contributions till now. Yet it didn't take me
much time to pull them in.

Jan

>
> Cheers,
>
> Henry
>
>
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-- 
Jan Decaluwe - Resources bvba - http://www.jandecaluwe.com
     Python as a HDL: http://www.myhdl.org
     VHDL development, the modern way: http://www.sigasi.com
     World-class digital design: http://www.easics.com

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