Eli Zaretskii writes: >> From: "Dr. Arne Babenhauserheide" >> Cc: hi-angel@yandex.ru, ams@gnu.org, luangruo@yahoo.com, emacs-devel@gnu.org >> Date: Sun, 18 Jun 2023 12:19:45 +0200 >> >> > People keep asking for more and more details to be described there, so >> > what you expect doesn't stand the test of time and user expectations. >> >> What would you do if CONTRIBUTING were a user interface? Would you >> include every idea someone has? > > Who said anything about including "every idea"? Sorry about that, it was too careless wording. I meant that > We try very hard to > include there only what's really necessary and non-obvious, you can > search the archives for discussions about CONTRIBUTE to see it for > yourself. But still, the instructions grow over time, because people > ask questions about the details, and enough people here consider some > of those details worthy to be included. With instructions it’s similar as with code: At some point it’s necessary to refactor, because incremental changes resulted in something that’s harder to work with than necessary. There are explanations *why* something is as it is — both in CONTRIBUTING and in Sending Patches. These are not necessary for someone wanting to submit a patch, but they are necessary for someone wanting to improve the instructions or wondering "why that rule?" — which at least to me is a common question when I see a list of rules. ⇒ not for first contact, but useful at the second or third patch. >> > It is clear that you personally may not need everything there, but >> > CONTRIBUTE is not for you and me, or others like we. >> >> For whom *is* CONTRIBUTE? > > For people who only start contributing and need to study our > conventions and requirements. If they bother reading the file, of > course. (If they don't, we will inform them about the relevant > conventions as part of the patch review process.) This informing about convention causes load on the maintainers, so I think we should increase the number of people who read instructions and get enough information from them that they need not be informed about convention ⇒ The shorter version I wrote is intended to reduce that load. At this point I’d say that this may be better as a bug report for the website. Where can I send these? Best wishes, Arne -- Unpolitisch sein heißt politisch sein, ohne es zu merken. draketo.de