Re: [Gdbheads] Proposed poll on proposals

[Ian Lance Taylor]

Eleven people sent in votes on the little poll I proposed last night:

Jim Blandy
Joel Brobecker
Kevin Buettner
David Carlton
Michael Elizabeth Chastain
Mark Kettenis
Bob Rossi
Peter Schauer
Michael Snyder
Corinna Vinschen
Eli Zaretskii

This includes six of gdb's global maintainers (out of twelve) and one
member of gdb's steering committee (out of ten) (assuming Elena's list
of steering committee members is accurate--that's the only list I can
find of this somewhat mysterious committee).  So this is obviously not
especially representative.  Oh well.


In any case, here are the results:

> 1) Global maintainers are permitted to approve patches to any part of
>    gdb, even parts which have a specific area maintainer.

9 yes
0 no
1 abstain
1 uncertain--I didn't understand the comment

> 2) If maintainers disagree on a patch, and can not resolve the
>    disagreement by discussion, the disagreement may be resolved by a
>    vote of all global maintainers and relevant area maintainers.

7 yes
3 no
1 abstain

> 3) Assign more area maintainers to areas for which patches are not
>    being reviewed fast enough.

4 yes
5 no
2 abstain

> 4) Track patches using an automated system; permit global maintainers
>    to approve a patch if the relevant area maintainers have not acted
>    for N days, for some value of N.

3 yes
7 no
1 abstain

> 5) Create an ombudsman for gdb, who is responsible for listening to
>    people's reports of problems, and then resolving them first through
>    the global maintainers, and then, if that fails, through the
>    steering committee.

0 yes
8 no
3 abstain

> 6) Reconstitute the steering committee to make it more active and to
>    make it better reflect the gdb community.  Include people from the
>    gcc and binutils projects.  Perhaps do not include current gdb
>    maintainers, to permit more objectivity.

9 yes
2 no


There is strong support for permitting global maintainers to approve
patches to any part of gdb.  However, it's worth noting that Andrew
has previously indicated his opposition to this, and he didn't vote.

There is strong opposition to creating an ombudsman, so I personally
don't see much point to pursuing that proposal any further.

There is fairly strong support for reconstituting the steering
committee.

There is some support for voting on patches, and some opposition to
permitting global maintainers to approve patches after N days.

Assigning new area maintainers drew mixed results.


Given these results, I would strongly encourage those people still
opposed to proposal 1, permitting global maintainers to approve
patches to any part of gdb, to make their strongest case and convince
other people to join their position.

Similarly, I would encourage the steering committee to consider
reconsituting itself, and/or have RMS (who is also a member of the
committee) do the reconstituting.

I think the other proposals require further discussion.

I hope that this little exercise helped.

Ian