unofficial mirror of guix-devel@gnu.org 
 help / color / mirror / code / Atom feed
* How can we decrease the cognitive overhead for contributors?
@ 2023-08-23 16:25 Katherine Cox-Buday
  2023-08-23 17:27 ` Felix Lechner via Development of GNU Guix and the GNU System distribution.
                   ` (11 more replies)
  0 siblings, 12 replies; 267+ messages in thread
From: Katherine Cox-Buday @ 2023-08-23 16:25 UTC (permalink / raw)
  To: guix-devel

Summary: for people who don't contribute to Guix a lot, each 
contribution has
very high cognitive overhead. Can we work to reduce that?

Hey all,

Contributing to Guix is currently pretty difficult for me. I'm a Mom with a
full-time job, and anything outside of my job that requires a lot of 
executive
functioning (e.g. lots of manual, detailed, steps) is very difficult for 
me to
get correct. That last part is what I wanted to discuss, because that's 
the part
that prevents me from contributing more than I do, and I think there are
probably others whom are impacted by this.

When I have some time to contribute, I usually stall out at the "submit 
this for
review" because of the amount of cognitive overhead required. I've written a
script for myself that tries to perform all the steps including running 
the git
command to submit the patch, and this has helped me, but that this is 
necessary
for me to do might be something that, if addressed, could help others.

Here are some examples of things that cause issues for me. This is not a 
list of
grievances; it's my way of attempting to demonstrate the "shape" of the 
issue:

     I signed up on Savannah with the intention of applying to be a 
committer.
     Savannah closed my account one or two days later due to inactivity.

     I can't ever seem to get the GNU style commit messages correct. I 
use the
     templates provided, but those don't cover all cases, and I've even 
gotten
     feedback in a review to change a message it created.

     I don't use the email-based patch workflow day-to-day, so this is 
another
     area where I spend a lot of time trying to make sure I'm doing things
     correctly.

     My script runs `guix style` and `guix lint`, but its suggestions aren't
     always correct. I suspect I've submitted some patches with nonsensical
     changes due to implicitly trusting these tools.

     Maybe 
https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/guile-devel/2023-02/msg00030.html
     addresses this, but manually managing Guile imports is laborious. As a
     fledgling schemer, I often forget which imports I needed just for
     development.

I think I would summarize the core of these examples as:

     "At every step of the contribution process, I must manually check that
     multiple things are correct. With limited available executive 
functioning,
     and no automation, this is very difficult to do correctly, and an 
easy place
     for contributors to stop."

I think that if I were working on Guix more frequently, I would build 
habits I
didn't have to think about, and these wouldn't be the large issues they are
for me. But because of the nature of a project like Guix, we want 
contributions
from people of all kinds of backgrounds, not just people who have the 
privilege
to work on Guix a lot.

I have given a list of issues to a group of people who are presumably
analytical, and I think the natural inclination is to go point-by-point 
and make
arguments for/against. Instead of that[*], I invite you to address the more
abstract issue: (should/how do) we reduce friction for making contributions?

Here are some things I've considered:

* Contributing to Guix is not for you

     I would be really sad if someone ever said this, but I guess it's a
     possibility. Maybe someone like me just can't be a contributor to 
Guix until
     I have the bandwidth to manage all the details. I would 
preemptively argue
     that diversity of thought and experiences usually leads to better 
things.

* It's OK to make lots of mistakes

     The people who have reviewed my code have been generous both with 
their time
     and fixing my mistakes and then applying. Maybe this model is OK? I 
still
     feel guilty every time a reviewer has to correct an oversight I've 
made. I
     also want to become a committer, but I don't know how that would 
work if
     I'm regularly making mistakes. Obviously people would still be 
reviewing my
     commits, but presumably a committer should not regularly be making
     mistakes.

* We could support a managed web-based workflow

     I think this has been brought up a lot of times, and I don't have a 
clear
     idea of what's been said. But I think a lot of developers these 
days are
     more familiar with this style, and we could still maintain 
self-sovereignty
     if we hosted something.

* Encourage upstream communities like "Guix 'R Us" 
(https://sr.ht/~whereiseveryone/guixrus/)

     Maybe Guix proper continues as is and we foster various upstream 
communities
     that utilize different styles and batch their contributions?

What do you all think? Does this affect anyone else?

[*] But if you have workflow suggestions, I'm all ears!

--
Katherine



^ permalink raw reply	[flat|nested] 267+ messages in thread

end of thread, other threads:[~2023-11-11  1:15 UTC | newest]

Thread overview: 267+ messages (download: mbox.gz follow: Atom feed
-- links below jump to the message on this page --
2023-08-23 16:25 How can we decrease the cognitive overhead for contributors? Katherine Cox-Buday
2023-08-23 17:27 ` Felix Lechner via Development of GNU Guix and the GNU System distribution.
2023-08-23 18:03   ` Andreas Enge
2023-08-25  8:07     ` Attila Lendvai
2023-08-25  9:16       ` Andreas Enge
2023-08-25  9:57         ` Attila Lendvai
2023-08-25 23:56           ` Katherine Cox-Buday
2023-08-25 14:44       ` Wilko Meyer
2023-08-26 14:37       ` Liliana Marie Prikler
2023-08-27 12:07         ` Attila Lendvai
2023-08-27 13:57           ` Saku Laesvuori
2023-08-27 17:08             ` Liliana Marie Prikler
2023-08-29 10:04               ` MSavoritias
2023-08-29 11:05                 ` Giovanni Biscuolo
2023-09-05 15:33                   ` Simon Tournier
2023-09-05 19:16                     ` Csepp
2023-09-05 20:43                       ` Simon Tournier
2023-08-29  3:00             ` Maxim Cournoyer
2023-09-05 16:01               ` Simon Tournier
2023-09-05 17:01                 ` Katherine Cox-Buday
2023-09-05 18:18                   ` Liliana Marie Prikler
2023-09-05 18:40                     ` (
2023-09-05 20:43                       ` Liliana Marie Prikler
2023-09-05 22:04                         ` wolf
2023-09-06 18:42                           ` Liliana Marie Prikler
2023-09-08 15:39                             ` Ricardo Wurmus
2023-09-08 22:56                               ` Liliana Marie Prikler
2023-09-06  9:41                         ` Josselin Poiret
2023-09-08 14:20                           ` Ricardo Wurmus
2023-09-10  9:35                             ` Efraim Flashner
2023-09-11 10:34                               ` Giovanni Biscuolo
2023-09-06 20:10                         ` Wojtek Kosior via Development of GNU Guix and the GNU System distribution.
2023-09-17  8:01                           ` MSavoritias
2023-09-07 20:38                         ` Katherine Cox-Buday
2023-09-07 20:52                           ` Felix Lechner via Development of GNU Guix and the GNU System distribution.
2023-09-17  8:07                           ` MSavoritias
2023-09-05 23:41                       ` brian via Development of GNU Guix and the GNU System distribution.
2023-09-06 16:53                         ` Liliana Marie Prikler
2023-09-06 17:52                           ` Vagrant Cascadian
2023-09-06 18:27                             ` Maxim Cournoyer
2023-09-06 18:49                               ` Christopher Baines
2023-09-08  9:16                               ` Giovanni Biscuolo
2023-09-08 16:56                                 ` Liliana Marie Prikler
2023-09-06 19:11                             ` Liliana Marie Prikler
2023-09-05 22:57                   ` Simon Tournier
2023-09-06  2:34                     ` Katherine Cox-Buday
2023-09-06  9:07                       ` Simon Tournier
2023-09-07 20:39                         ` Katherine Cox-Buday
2023-09-09 12:32                           ` Simon Tournier
2023-09-11 12:19                             ` Giovanni Biscuolo
2023-09-12 15:35                               ` Katherine Cox-Buday
2023-09-12 15:35                                 ` Katherine Cox-Buday
2023-09-09 17:14                           ` Liliana Marie Prikler
2023-09-11 12:37                             ` Giovanni Biscuolo
2023-09-11 21:25                               ` Csepp
2023-09-12  9:09                                 ` Giovanni Biscuolo
2023-09-12 11:09                                   ` Csepp
2023-09-12 14:51                                     ` Maxim Cournoyer
2023-09-17 12:39                                       ` MSavoritias
2023-09-08 10:25                         ` Giovanni Biscuolo
2023-09-06 19:01                       ` Liliana Marie Prikler
2023-09-08  9:53                       ` Giovanni Biscuolo
2023-09-08 11:28                         ` Ricardo Wurmus
2023-09-08 12:40                           ` Giovanni Biscuolo
2023-09-12 16:05                             ` Katherine Cox-Buday
2023-09-12 16:05                               ` Katherine Cox-Buday
2023-09-13  7:57                               ` Simon Tournier
2023-09-13  9:28                                 ` Simon Tournier
2023-09-12 16:08                           ` Katherine Cox-Buday
2023-09-12 16:08                             ` Katherine Cox-Buday
2023-09-08 12:09                         ` Efraim Flashner
2023-09-08 16:54                           ` Giovanni Biscuolo
2023-09-06  2:49                   ` Maxim Cournoyer
2023-09-06 22:16                     ` kiasoc5
2023-09-08 15:27               ` Ricardo Wurmus
2023-09-08 19:22                 ` Liliana Marie Prikler
2023-09-08 20:37                   ` Ricardo Wurmus
2023-09-12 16:18                     ` Katherine Cox-Buday
2023-09-12 16:18                       ` Katherine Cox-Buday
2023-09-09 10:01                 ` Simon Tournier
2023-09-09 19:45                   ` Ricardo Wurmus
2023-08-28  8:15         ` Giovanni Biscuolo
2023-08-28 17:00           ` Liliana Marie Prikler
2023-08-30  7:37             ` Giovanni Biscuolo
2023-08-29  9:29         ` MSavoritias
2023-08-29 19:29           ` Liliana Marie Prikler
2023-09-08 14:44         ` Ricardo Wurmus
2023-09-08 18:50           ` Liliana Marie Prikler
2023-09-08 20:24             ` Ricardo Wurmus
2023-09-08 23:26               ` Liliana Marie Prikler
2023-09-09 19:40                 ` Ricardo Wurmus
2023-09-09 22:20                   ` Liliana Marie Prikler
2023-09-11 10:36                     ` Simon Tournier
2023-09-11 17:53                       ` Liliana Marie Prikler
2023-09-11 18:50                         ` Simon Tournier
2023-09-12 14:42                           ` Maxim Cournoyer
2023-09-12 16:57                             ` Simon Tournier
2023-09-13 15:31                               ` to PR or not to PR, is /that/ the question? Giovanni Biscuolo
2023-09-13 22:02                                 ` Simon Tournier
2023-09-14  6:53                                   ` Giovanni Biscuolo
2023-09-14  7:30                                     ` Simon Tournier
2023-09-17 16:20                     ` How can we decrease the cognitive overhead for contributors? MSavoritias
2023-09-17 16:35                       ` Liliana Marie Prikler
2023-09-18  9:37                       ` Simon Tournier
2023-09-18 16:35                         ` MSavoritias
2023-09-18 17:13                           ` Simon Tournier
2023-09-18 17:39                             ` MSavoritias
2023-09-18 19:20                               ` Simon Tournier
2023-09-18 20:28                                 ` Felix Lechner via Development of GNU Guix and the GNU System distribution.
2023-09-18 19:47                               ` Liliana Marie Prikler
2023-09-17 15:50             ` MSavoritias
2023-08-25 23:48     ` Katherine Cox-Buday
2023-08-27  8:35       ` Josselin Poiret
2023-08-25 23:31   ` Katherine Cox-Buday
2023-08-23 20:48 ` Liliana Marie Prikler
2023-08-25  9:03   ` Attila Lendvai
2023-08-27  3:27     ` Maxim Cournoyer
2023-09-02 22:11       ` Ricardo Wurmus
2023-09-03  1:05         ` Vagrant Cascadian
2023-09-04  8:56           ` Ricardo Wurmus
2023-09-04 15:10             ` Efraim Flashner
2023-09-05  2:18             ` Maxim Cournoyer
2023-09-05  7:21               ` Replacing Mumi+Debbugs? Ricardo Wurmus
2023-09-05 13:12               ` How can we decrease the cognitive overhead for contributors? Csepp
2023-09-05 20:30                 ` Wilko Meyer
2023-08-23 22:04 ` Ricardo Wurmus
2023-08-23 22:37   ` Jack Hill
2023-08-24  0:18 ` Csepp
2023-08-25  0:10   ` Ekaitz Zarraga
2023-08-26  0:16     ` Katherine Cox-Buday
2023-08-28 21:46     ` paul
2023-08-26  0:06   ` Katherine Cox-Buday
2023-08-27  3:00     ` Maxim Cournoyer
2023-08-27  8:37       ` Josselin Poiret
2023-08-28  9:44         ` Giovanni Biscuolo
2023-08-27  2:50   ` Maxim Cournoyer
2023-08-29 22:40     ` Csepp
2023-08-30  2:46       ` Maxim Cournoyer
2023-08-28  8:52   ` Simon Tournier
2023-08-24  3:33 ` Ahmed Khanzada via Development of GNU Guix and the GNU System distribution.
2023-08-26  0:25   ` Katherine Cox-Buday
2023-08-24  6:33 ` (
2023-08-26  0:39   ` Katherine Cox-Buday
2023-08-27  3:22     ` Maxim Cournoyer
2023-08-27  7:39       ` 宋文武
2023-08-28 11:42         ` Giovanni Biscuolo
2023-09-01 19:12           ` Imran Iqbal
2023-09-03 17:45             ` Ekaitz Zarraga
2023-09-03 21:05               ` indieterminacy
2023-09-03 21:16                 ` Ekaitz Zarraga
2023-09-13 12:20                   ` Fannys
2023-09-13 15:42                     ` Maxim Cournoyer
2023-09-13 23:13                       ` Ekaitz Zarraga
2023-09-17 11:29                       ` MSavoritias
2023-09-18 10:09                         ` Simon Tournier
2023-09-19 10:33                           ` contribute with content in our official help pages? Giovanni Biscuolo
2023-09-19 16:35                           ` The elephant in the room and the Guix Bang Giovanni Biscuolo
2023-09-19 20:41                             ` Simon Tournier
2023-09-20 20:52                               ` Giovanni Biscuolo
2023-09-20  8:21                             ` Csepp
2023-09-20  8:45                               ` The e(macs)lephant " Nguyễn Gia Phong via Development of GNU Guix and the GNU System distribution.
2023-09-20  9:28                                 ` MSavoritias
2023-09-20 14:03                                   ` Ricardo Wurmus
2023-09-20 14:09                                     ` MSavoritias
2023-09-14  8:24                     ` How can we decrease the cognitive overhead for contributors? Ricardo Wurmus
2023-09-18 16:40                       ` MSavoritias
2023-09-14 17:49                     ` Sarthak Shah
2023-09-15 10:18                       ` Simon Tournier
2023-09-13 12:25                   ` MSavoritias
2023-09-22 15:14               ` Imran Iqbal
2023-09-22 15:30                 ` Katherine Cox-Buday
2023-09-22 16:17                 ` Ekaitz Zarraga
2023-09-22 16:35                 ` MSavoritias
2023-09-22 17:28                   ` Ekaitz Zarraga
2023-09-25 15:13                     ` Enabling contribution through documentation Samuel Christie via Development of GNU Guix and the GNU System distribution.
2023-10-16 20:18                       ` Matt
2023-11-06 22:43                         ` Samuel Christie via Development of GNU Guix and the GNU System distribution.
2023-11-11  1:14                           ` Matt
2023-08-28  6:12     ` How can we decrease the cognitive overhead for contributors? (
2023-08-28  9:14     ` Simon Tournier
2023-08-29  9:53       ` MSavoritias
2023-09-05  7:54         ` Simon Tournier
2023-09-13 12:59           ` MSavoritias
2023-09-14  8:18             ` Ricardo Wurmus
2023-08-26 17:40   ` kiasoc5
2023-08-24  9:06 ` Wilko Meyer
2023-08-25  9:31   ` Attila Lendvai
2023-08-26 17:42     ` kiasoc5
2023-08-26 18:53       ` Liliana Marie Prikler
2023-08-26 21:35         ` Attila Lendvai
2023-08-27  8:26       ` Non-committer comments on patches Andreas Enge
2023-08-28  6:17       ` How can we decrease the cognitive overhead for contributors? (
2023-08-28 10:01       ` Simon Tournier
2023-08-28  9:26     ` Simon Tournier
2023-08-24 18:53 ` Simon Tournier
2023-08-26  1:02   ` Katherine Cox-Buday
2023-08-28 10:17     ` Simon Tournier
2023-08-30 16:11       ` Katherine Cox-Buday
2023-08-30 16:53         ` Andreas Enge
2023-08-30 19:02         ` MSavoritias
2023-09-02 11:16         ` Giovanni Biscuolo
2023-09-02 13:48           ` paul
2023-09-02 19:08             ` Csepp
2023-09-02 20:23               ` wolf
2023-09-02 23:08                 ` Csepp
2023-09-04 10:23               ` Attila Lendvai
2023-09-04 12:44                 ` brian via Development of GNU Guix and the GNU System distribution.
2023-09-04 14:35                   ` Attila Lendvai
2023-09-04 18:13                   ` Andreas Enge
2023-09-05  9:58                     ` pinoaffe
2023-09-05 14:22                       ` brian via Development of GNU Guix and the GNU System distribution.
2023-09-05 15:25                         ` Maxim Cournoyer
2023-09-05 13:19                     ` Csepp
2023-09-05 15:30                       ` Maxim Cournoyer
2023-09-05 19:08                         ` Csepp
2023-09-06 12:14                         ` Attila Lendvai
2023-09-06 12:56                           ` Ekaitz Zarraga
2023-09-06 16:03                           ` Maxim Cournoyer
2023-09-04 19:16                   ` phil
2023-09-04 18:22                 ` Andreas Enge
2023-09-02 16:08           ` Csepp
2023-09-02 18:27             ` Mumi search broken? (was: Re: How can we decrease the cognitive overhead for contributors?) Liliana Marie Prikler
2023-09-03  7:36             ` How can we decrease the cognitive overhead for contributors? Ricardo Wurmus
2023-09-03  8:53               ` paul
2023-09-03 10:31                 ` Ricardo Wurmus
2023-09-03 14:53                   ` Felix Lechner via Development of GNU Guix and the GNU System distribution.
2023-09-04  9:40                     ` Giovanni Biscuolo
2023-09-03 18:18                   ` Csepp
2023-09-03 20:32                     ` Ricardo Wurmus
2023-09-05  8:43                   ` Simon Tournier
2023-09-05 18:04               ` Katherine Cox-Buday
2023-09-05 19:15           ` Katherine Cox-Buday
2023-09-13 13:24           ` MSavoritias
2023-09-05  1:32         ` Maxim Cournoyer
2023-09-05 17:19           ` Katherine Cox-Buday
2023-09-05 14:01         ` Simon Tournier
2023-09-05 18:00           ` Katherine Cox-Buday
2023-09-05 20:39             ` Guix User Survey? Wilko Meyer
2023-09-05 23:55             ` How can we decrease the cognitive overhead for contributors? Simon Tournier
2023-09-06  2:58               ` Katherine Cox-Buday
2023-09-06  9:34                 ` Next action, survey? Simon Tournier
2023-09-07 20:39                   ` Katherine Cox-Buday
2023-09-08  6:31               ` How can we decrease the cognitive overhead for contributors? (
2023-09-05 22:11           ` wolf
2023-09-05 23:02             ` Simon Tournier
2023-09-13 13:59           ` MSavoritias
2023-08-28 21:41 ` paul
2023-08-29  8:32   ` Giovanni Biscuolo
2023-08-29  9:31   ` Giovanni Biscuolo
2023-08-29 11:28     ` git interfaces (was Re: How can we decrease the cognitive overhead for contributors?) Giovanni Biscuolo
2023-08-29 23:11     ` How can we decrease the cognitive overhead for contributors? Csepp
2023-08-30  8:39     ` Attila Lendvai
2023-08-30  9:33       ` Andreas Enge
2023-08-30  0:22 ` Danny Milosavljevic
2023-08-30  9:41   ` Andreas Enge
2023-08-30 12:33     ` commit message helpers (was Re: How can we decrease the cognitive overhead for contributors?) Giovanni Biscuolo
2023-09-04 13:36   ` How can we decrease the cognitive overhead for contributors? Ricardo Wurmus
2023-09-05  3:25     ` Maxim Cournoyer
2023-09-05  7:48       ` Ricardo Wurmus
2023-09-04 11:09 ` David Larsson
2023-09-04 22:06 ` Mumi CLI client (was: How can we decrease the cognitive overhead for contributors?) Arun Isaac
2023-09-05  8:58   ` Debbugs CLI client (was Re: Mumi CLI client (was: How can we decrease the cognitive overhead for contributors?))) Simon Tournier
2023-09-05 10:37   ` Mumi CLI client (was: How can we decrease the cognitive overhead for contributors?) Giovanni Biscuolo
2023-09-08 16:49     ` Ricardo Wurmus
2023-09-12 14:55       ` Giovanni Biscuolo
2023-09-13  8:52         ` Ricardo Wurmus
2023-09-13 10:26           ` Commenting bug reports via mumi web interface " Giovanni Biscuolo

Code repositories for project(s) associated with this public inbox

	https://git.savannah.gnu.org/cgit/guix.git

This is a public inbox, see mirroring instructions
for how to clone and mirror all data and code used for this inbox;
as well as URLs for read-only IMAP folder(s) and NNTP newsgroup(s).