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* Maintenance and future of Guile (was: [patch] Add instructions for sending patches)
@ 2021-12-13 22:18 Jean Abou Samra
  2021-12-13 22:21 ` Jean Abou Samra
                   ` (2 more replies)
  0 siblings, 3 replies; 15+ messages in thread
From: Jean Abou Samra @ 2021-12-13 22:18 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: guile-devel, maximedevos, arne_bab; +Cc: wingo, ludo, Jonas Hahnfeld

> Hi,
>
> Dr. Arne Babenhauserheide schreef op za 11-12-2021 om 16:12 [+0100]:
> >/+ (p "To contribute small improvements, please send patches to/
> >/"/
> >/+    (a (@ (href "mailto:guile-devel@gnu.org" 
> <mailto:guile-devel@gnu.org">;))/
> >/"guile-devel@gnu.org")/
> >/+       ".")/
>
> What about contributing _large_ improvements?
> Where should patches for large improvements go?
>
> >/+ (p "For larger changes, please discuss them first in the "/
> >/+ (a (@ (href "https://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/guile->/
> devel/")) "development mailing list")
>
> What if I tried to discuss them, but nobody answered?
> (https://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=46258)
> (Not 100% accurate though, because I discussed the interface on IRC a
> bit IIRC? I can't find it in the logs anymore though.)
>
> What if, I then proceed with writing the patches, and nobody responds
> with some points to work on or applies it?
> (https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/guile-devel/2021-03/msg00026.html)
> (The only response is a +1-style response.)
>
> What if, eight months later, I send a simplified patch series, with
> things made more consistent, and with much more tests, and this time,
> there is exactly one response, with a minor point that is quickly
> addressed
> (https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/guile-devel/2021-11/msg00019.html),
> but the patches aren't applied?
>
> There have been many commits and two releases since the first patch
> series
> (https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/guile.git/log/?id=653cc0bf953a11432f77ade9c007848e947cc430&qt=range&q=653cc0bf953a11432f77ade9c007848e947cc430..HEAD&ofs=100  <https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/guile.git/log/?id=653cc0bf953a11432f77ade9c007848e947cc430&qt=range&q=653cc0bf953a11432f77ade9c007848e947cc430..HEAD&ofs=100>)
> , without any signs that it will actually ever be applied.
>
> So I guess what I'm trying to say, is that while your patch documenting
> how to contribute seems reasonable to me, it has been very inaccurate
> for me in practice (not your fault!).
>
> Greetings,
> Maxime


I concur with this concern. The patch
https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/guile-devel/2021-07/msg00000.html
has been proposed five months ago and after
several pings still only saw responses from Maxime.
It comes from a LilyPond developer trying to fix
issues relevant for LilyPond.

https://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=16364#19
is a patch allowing to silence the auto-compilation
logging, which is also somewhat relevant to our use
case. It has not seen any reaction.

I see a number of similar cases on the mailing list.

I understand the cost of reviewing and I know that
nobody is entitled to anything in the free software
world. However, I would like to voice the concern that
Guile's maintenance is not scaling, and the project
cannot attract new contributors if patches do not
make it to the main branch. If the current maintainers
need to drop their activity, it would be nice if
they could share maintainership so that at least
bug fixes can be applied.

(NB: Sending this as myself, _not_ after any sort
of discussion at LilyPond.)

Thank you for your consideration,
Jean Abou Samra




^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 15+ messages in thread

end of thread, other threads:[~2022-08-19 19:06 UTC | newest]

Thread overview: 15+ messages (download: mbox.gz / follow: Atom feed)
-- links below jump to the message on this page --
2021-12-13 22:18 Maintenance and future of Guile (was: [patch] Add instructions for sending patches) Jean Abou Samra
2021-12-13 22:21 ` Jean Abou Samra
2021-12-14  3:45 ` Dr. Arne Babenhauserheide
2022-02-11  7:33   ` Catonano
2021-12-15 10:20 ` Maintenance and future of Guile Ludovic Courtès
2021-12-16 21:15   ` Taylan Kammer
2021-12-17 14:51     ` Olivier Dion via Developers list for Guile, the GNU extensibility library
2021-12-17 15:33       ` Artem Chernyak
2021-12-17 15:37       ` Ludovic Courtès
2021-12-17 15:48         ` Olivier Dion via Developers list for Guile, the GNU extensibility library
2021-12-18 16:35           ` Taylan Kammer
2021-12-21 14:27           ` Ludovic Courtès
2022-08-19 16:49             ` Aleix Conchillo Flaqué
2022-08-19 18:46           ` zimoun
2022-08-19 19:06             ` Blake Shaw

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