Re: [Gdbheads] proposed change to GDB maintainership rules

[Robert Dewar]

One advance here is that everyone is now more aware of problems in the past.
It may well be that we can move forward on the basis of everyone trying
individually to avoid these same problems in the future. That's actually
more likely to be effective than any specific changes in the rules for
maintenance procedures, which are after all a cooperative enterprise.

If problems do appear in the future, The important thing is to identify 
them and discuss them in the framework of these discussions. Then the
steering committee can deal with the problems as they arise. 

Generally I would support a set of maintainership rules that give maximum
latitude to the maintainers in terms of installing patches. If someone
installs a patch that someone else considers a mistake, then a technical
discussion should ensue (that's important, it is definitely wrong for someone
to roar ahead and back out a patch without discussion). Equally, it is helpful
if everyone tries to anticipate cases in advance where controversy may arise
so that cases like that can be discussed in advance.

Voting is usually only helpful in establishing current positions on the
way to a consensus. If you get to the point where technical issues are
being resolved by contentious votes, something has gone very wrong.

Robert Dewar