Opportunities for D

[H. S. Teoh via Digitalmars-d]

On Thu, Jul 10, 2014 at 06:01:09PM +0000, safety0ff via Digitalmars-d wrote:
> On Thursday, 10 July 2014 at 16:55:34 UTC, H. S. Teoh via Digitalmars-d
[...]
> >I suspect this is one of the problems (perceived or otherwise) with
> >the current PR process. A lot of work is just sitting there without
> >even an acknowledgement from a bystander, so to speak, and the few
> >that do get some attention, after comments have been addressed,
> >continue to sit there with no indication of whether the change is
> >unacceptable, or uninteresting, or interesting but people are too
> >busy to look at it, or what. Sometimes I just stare at the PR page
> >day after day asking, is something missing? Do people expect any
> >other changes?  Are people too busy to even look at it? Even a casual
> >remark as "I'll get around to this on the weekend (or next month, or,
> >for that matter, next *year*)" would help bolster morale
> >significantly. Letting things sit in limbo without so much as a
> >comment, says, intentionally or not, that we just don't care, and
> >that's very discouraging to potential contributors.
> 
> This is exactly the typical contributor experience.

Which we must change if we're going to increase D adoption.
Unfortunately, I don't see any good solution to this, except just hoping
for more contributors to pick up different pieces of Phobos as their
"passion" and become the "lieutenant" for that part of it. But that
requires first of all that contributors are motivated to contribute, yet
the current situation isn't encouraging them to join in. It's a vicious
cycle, and I don't know how to break it.


> >Now I'm not saying this with any bitterness, and, having a full-time
> >job myself plus countless other responsibilities with family, etc., I
> >totally understand that sometimes people are just too busy to
> >respond.
> 
> It's difficult to believe that everybody is too busy to review PRs yet
> have ample time to invest in the most futile of forum discussions.

Well, that's just because futile forum discussions take almost no
effort, while reviewing PRs requires the actual use of brain cells! ;-)
As somebody once said, talk is cheap, and whining is actually free.
Reviewing PRs, OTOH, requires one to actually sit down and look at real
code and think over it. Not that it's a valid excuse, but this *is* a
volunteer community, and people aren't going to do what they're asked to
do, only what they're interested to do.


T

-- 
The richest man is not he who has the most, but he who needs the least.