From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.io!.POSTED.blaine.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Eli Zaretskii Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: Gitlab Migration Date: Thu, 26 Aug 2021 22:04:25 +0300 Message-ID: <83fsuwrps6.fsf@gnu.org> References: <87h7fcnmq0.fsf@posteo.net> <28953ac9-60e5-7583-6297-750c04ca3748@gmail.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Injection-Info: ciao.gmane.io; posting-host="blaine.gmane.org:116.202.254.214"; logging-data="35363"; mail-complaints-to="usenet@ciao.gmane.io" Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org To: =?utf-8?Q?Cl=C3=A9ment?= Pit-Claudel Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane-mx.org@gnu.org Thu Aug 26 21:08:58 2021 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane-mx.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([209.51.188.17]) by ciao.gmane.io with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.92) (envelope-from ) id 1mJKkD-00091p-Va for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane-mx.org; Thu, 26 Aug 2021 21:08:57 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:39906 helo=lists1p.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1mJKkC-0003IS-6b for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane-mx.org; Thu, 26 Aug 2021 15:08:56 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:470:142:3::10]:40906) by lists.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1mJKgA-0001kw-4f for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Thu, 26 Aug 2021 15:04:46 -0400 Original-Received: from fencepost.gnu.org ([2001:470:142:3::e]:47784) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1mJKg9-0005Fb-SY; Thu, 26 Aug 2021 15:04:45 -0400 Original-Received: from 84.94.185.95.cable.012.net.il ([84.94.185.95]:3120 helo=home-c4e4a596f7) by fencepost.gnu.org with esmtpsa (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1mJKg9-0006t7-Dg; Thu, 26 Aug 2021 15:04:45 -0400 In-Reply-To: <28953ac9-60e5-7583-6297-750c04ca3748@gmail.com> (message from =?utf-8?Q?Cl=C3=A9ment?= Pit-Claudel on Thu, 26 Aug 2021 14:36:17 -0400) X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.23 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane-mx.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: "Emacs-devel" Xref: news.gmane.io gmane.emacs.devel:273065 Archived-At: > From: Clément Pit-Claudel > Date: Thu, 26 Aug 2021 14:36:17 -0400 > > - It requires less expertise with git and the patching workflow. Committing to "one branch per patch" means that contributors don't need to know how to prepare and send or apply patches. It also means that maintainers (or bots!) can push fixes directly, instead of requesting them. For example recently I opened a pull request for a Python project I had never contributed to, and an automated system promptly pushed an additional commit to the branch to reformat my code using the project's preferred style. With Emacs patches we typically ask the author to fix issues that are spotted by hand by a reviewer. It's actually the other way around, at least in some cases. With patches that are emailed to me, I can fix some simple issues, such as commit log messages or simple typos, myself, before applying. With merging via Web UI, I need to push another commit, which is a waste, and also breaks what should have been a single commit into several ones. So with Web UI, I expect _more_ requests to contributors to get their act together, where automated fixups are impossible, because there's little I can do myself. > - Responding to old bugs is easier. With a mailing list, it's no necessarily clear what the process is. Should I send a new message to the bug address? Or does it need the right response headers? In that case should I download the mbox first and import it into my email client? I think you see problems where there are none. If you have an email message that belongs to a bug, reply to it; otherwise simply write to the bug address. admin/notes/bugtracker explains this within its first dozen of lines. And it isn't like GitLab and similar platforms don't have similar issues: e.g., I don't know to this day how to reply to a specific comment there (as opposed to the last one), nor how to cite portions of the comment to which I respond. And that's _after_ I overcome the shock of not being able to use sophisticated editing commands and spell-checking. > I'm sure there are many other pros and cons, but email isn't necessarily particularly easy when you want to do more than send messages. I realize that some people who want to contribute don't like emacs or are intimidated by it. That's an important reason to provide the UI to which they are more accustomed. But let's not exaggerate the advantages of these platforms for the Emacs developers: though some advantages exist, they are not that significant, at least IMO, and there are disadvantages (described in the GitLab issue). IOW, the most important reason for this move is to be more welcoming to casual contributors, not to make the job much easier for the maintainers.