Re: GOP-PROP 2: mentors and Frogs - probably decision

[Carl Sorensen]

On 6/22/11 10:09 AM, "Jan Warchoł" <address@hidden>
wrote:

> 2011/6/22 Graham Percival <address@hidden>:
>> On Wed, Jun 22, 2011 at 04:06:17PM +0200, Jan Warchoł wrote:
>>> Problem 1: a Frog tries to modify wind diagrams code and experiences
>>> some difficulties.  (S)he sends an e-mail to -devel, but gets no
>>> answers because developer X (who wrote that code) overlooked his/her
>>> e-mail, and noone else knows the answer.
>>> Solution: a list of developers with "specializations", for example:
>> 
>> No.  I absolutely reject any solution which lays any kind of
>> obligation (implied or explict) on people.  See the second
>> paragraph of "rationale":
>> http://lilypond.org/~graham/gop/gop_2.html
> 
> I remember it.
> I don't want to suggest laying implied obligations on anyone.
> Maybe there's a misunderstanding, so let's make things clear: do you
> say that asking Mike (who wrote automatic beam collision avoidance)
> "Mike, I'm trying to improve automatic beam collision avoidance, but i
> can't figure out what foobar does. Can you give me some clues?" is
> laying implied obligations on him?

I think that the implied obligation is saying "Mike will help people who are
playing with beam collision avoidance."

>>> Problem 2: an Enthusiastic User writes to -devel: "it would be great
>>> if Lily supported foobar!". Graham replies: "sure, add it yourself."
>>> and nothing else happens. Graham is right, but user gets discouraged.
>> 
>> Is that a problem?  :)
> 
> We don't know, but probably it is. You said that Carl started as a
> documentation writer, so maybe that Enthusiastic User would become
> next project leader, after 3-4 years?
> You wrote yourself that recruiting new developers is crucial for the project.
> Of course encouraging enthusiastic users is a job for Frog Meister,
> not you, i agree.
> 
> A question: are there (m)any people in the development team who
> started as developers right away, without being "just users" for some
> time? (besides Jan and Han-Wen, of course)

Actually, I started as a developer right away, because I wanted guitar fret
diagrams.  It was only after that development that I ended up helping with
the documentation work under GDP.

I think that perhaps Mike Solomon started as a developer fairly quickly
because of woodwind diagrams.

I think it's much more likely for people to start as developers if they want
to support a new feature than if they want to fix something that is broken.

Thanks,

Carl