[Leglug-core] Input for Contributions to FOSS Projects [was Re: losetup "size" parameter?]

[ID]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Shlomi Fish <shlomif at iglu.org.il>
Date: Thu, Apr 17, 2008 at 7:49 PM
Subject: Input for Contributions to FOSS Projects [was Re: losetup "size"
parameter?]
To: Shachar Shemesh <shachar at shemesh.biz>
Cc: pub at goldshmidt.org, linux-il at cs.huji.ac.il


Hi!

On Thursday 17 April 2008, Shachar Shemesh wrote:
> Oleg Goldshmidt wrote:
> > On Thu, Apr 17, 2008 at 8:17 AM, Shachar Shemesh <shachar at shemesh.biz>
wrote:
> >> sending a
> >> patch to a major component in Linux and getting a "good work" in reply
> >> is definitely a welcome change.
> >
> > Let me venture a wild guess: maybe it *was* a good work? ;-)
>
> Even so, most major projects I know (Wine, Postgresql, Linux) the
> highest form of compliment you are likely to receive is that they commit
> your patch to the revision control. Getting actual feedback if it's good
> is rare. Even getting actual feedback if it's bad isn't very common.
>

That's not the case for Subversion ( http://subversion.tigris.org/ ). They
generally commented on any patch I sent to the developer mailing list or bug
tracker. Sometimes I had to revise my patch because of very small things,
including trailing whitespace, or improper indentation.

Normally, I received a notification if a patch I sent was (finally) placed
into the version control system, possibly with a thanks. I also received
this:

http://svn.haxx.se/dev/archive-2003-08/0476.shtml

I later on stopped actively contributing patches to Subversion because I
felt
that it was already in very good shape, and no longer need my active help.
Nevertheless, I still sometimes write patches for their links page to add a
good link I'm encountering and send it (and it is either applied or dropped
down).

I really liked the online atmosphere of Subversion, and they certainly made
co-developers or co-contributers welcome.

I should also note that when I contributed patches to the perl5 (core)
documents (perl*.pod) I normally received replies that requested me to
correct typos, formatting style, trailing whitespace, etc. My patches were
eventually applied, normally with a small thank you. My bug reports (which I
am too incapable to fix myself, but was still capable enough to discover)
were also usually dealt with.

I had some other, less positive experiences, but don't recall them as
vividly,
and would rather not comment on them.

Regards,

       Shlomi Fish

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Shlomi Fish      shlomif at iglu.org.il
Homepage:        http://www.shlomifish.org/

I'm not an actor - I just play one on T.V.

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