Re: Guix Days: Patch flow discussion

[Clément Lassieur]

On Mon, Feb 05 2024, Felix Lechner via wrote:

> On Mon, Feb 05 2024, Clément Lassieur wrote:
>
>> On Mon, Feb 05 2024, Felix Lechner via "Development of GNU Guix and the GNU 
>> System distribution." wrote:
>>
>> I see no evidence here.  And I'm unsure which plan you are talking
>> about (the plan?).
>
> Two people can look at the same thing and reach different conclusions. I
> see no evidence that large numbers of non-committers are eager to review
> patches.

I believe very few people (commiter or not) are eager to review patches.

>> What do you mean with "bottom"?
>
> I'm sorry to put words into your mouth. I meant to quote an executive at
> a bank who explained that strategy to me. The word "bottom" was his and
> should have been a quote.
>
> The executive referred to people without the authority to act on behalf
> of the group.
>
> I believe Guix would be better off to delegate responsibility (rather
> than competency) by handing out commit access more generously but
> imposing limits as to the type of changes a person may make.
>
> The honor system will work fine.
>
>> Reviewing != Closing
>
> Maybe they should be the same. Two people looking at a patch (submitter
> and committer) are more efficient than three people, i.e. a submitter, a
> reviewer, and a committer.

Committers are trusted, and obviously it takes time to be trusted, so
not everyone can be at once.  Reviewing requires less trust because the
committer can do a quick check that everything is in order before
submitting the patch.

It's less efficient if you compare flows for two patches, but for 1000
patches, it makes it easier to find reviewers, so in the end it's more
efficient.

> It's one of several bottlenecks at Guix. Another is that committers
> should commit what they think is right rather than ask for revised
> patches.

I sometimes update the commit a little bit before pushing, and then
explain what I changed in my email.  But if the changes are big, I often
believe it makes more sense to ask for a v2.

> Please give authorship to the submitter.

I think it's the case?

Cheers,
Clément