The forked elephant in the room

[Walter Bright]

On 1/18/2024 10:43 AM, Paul Backus wrote:
> When someone submits a contribution, and you make them wait for weeks or months 
> before you even acknowledge their work, the message you are sending is that 
> their work is not important and their time is not valuable.

Since these three examples have come up repeatedly, I will add some context.

https://github.com/dlang/dmd/pull/15715

That was submitted Oct 20. Discussion about it had gone on in the n.g. for 
years, which I participated in heavily.

> When someone shares their ideas, and you dismiss them without even attempting to 
> reach a common understanding, the message you are sending is that their ideas 
> are not worth listening to.

https://github.com/dlang/dmd/pull/12828

Heated discussion has gone on about that issue for years, including at DConf.
Also, https://github.com/dlang/dmd/pull/12828#issuecomment-875455810


> When you require others to follow rules and processes, but exempt yourself from 
> them, the message you are sending is that you do not view those people as your 
> equals.

https://github.com/dlang/dmd/pull/12507

ImportC is not a language change, and so did not require a DIP. It was not 
pulled by myself, either. You could think of it as simply integration of 
existing tools we were already using. The 3 tools that convert C code to D code, 
  htod, DStep, and dpp, showed the need for it. It had no impact on anyone who 
wasn't interested in it. We also do not require DIPs for bug fixes, internal 
improvements to the compiler, better code generation, adding things like 
generating C++ headers from D code, etc.

And sure, ImportC met with a lot of skepticism (Adam called it "completely 
useless" https://github.com/dlang/dmd/pull/12507#issuecomment-835915214). Over 
time, it has found its legs and audience. A good proxy for how useful a feature 
is is the quantity of bugzilla issues submitted, and ImportC has had a lot of 
them! (317 submitted, 274 resolved)


> No matter how polite you are, if you treat people like their work is not 
> important, their time is not valuable, their ideas are not worth listening to, 
> and they are not your equals, then you are not treating them with respect.

I agree completely. I also agree that there are instances where I do not live up 
to those ideals, and need to do better. A better example would be when I added 
user defined attributes over 10 years ago (the result of which the DIP process 
was initiated).