[Koha-devel] ping Koha (developers) community

[Galen Charlton]

Hi,

On Wed, Dec 18, 2013 at 8:49 AM, Paul Poulain <paul.poulain at biblibre.com> wrote:
> Le 10/12/2013 20:10, Chris Cormack a écrit :
>> In theory this sounds good, with the caveat bug severity can override it
>> too.
> Agreed.
> When I was RM (4 releases too, 2 with the current workflow ;-) ), I used
> FIFO, except for BLO & CRI, which I was always dealing with 1st.
> And that was easy because bugzilla display them in red !

To be explicit, and no doubt obvious: I don't use FIFO.  Patches for
security bugs, blockers, and criticals will take precedence, but I
tend to mull over patches, and in some cases wait for other patches to
pass QA so that a clump of patches on the same topic can be pushed.
As I'm sure is obvious, I both reject a lot of patches and write a lot
of follow-ups, including resolving merge conflicts.  My primary
emphasis is ensuring that regressions are minimized and that the new
release will be as stable as possible.

If I were to suggest one micro enhancement to to the process -- or
perhaps just sing the same old tune -- if you want to increase the
changes that your patch goes through signoff, QA review, and RM review
quickly -- keep your patches small and focused and don't be afraid to
split up large patches into series.

As far as larger enhancements to the process -- the module maintainer
project has been slow to get off the ground, but I'll be pushing more
on it after the holidays.

>> Of course we can make tons of suggestions, but it is really up to the RM
>> how they use their time and we should be seeking to support them in what
>> ultimately is a thankless role.
> It's the RM final cut, but it does not mean all other must shut up &
> just wait for another RM election (& candidate ;-) )

Indeed.  Accountability is important to the process, and I agree that
waiting for the next RM election is a bit long to wait.  So, no need
to shut up -- but also please remember that simply making complaints
is not necessarily the most productive way to go about offering a
critique.  There are no robots involved in the process of signing off,
QAing, or pushing patches (and keeping that in mind is why, if I had a
*lot* more money, I would be organizing in-person global hackfests at
least once every quarter).

>> Speaking from my experience of RMing (4 releases I think) almost all you
>> ever get is complaints.
> In the short term, maybe. But in the long term ... look at your karma
> Highest karma: "rangi" (962), "oleonard" (806), and "jcamins" (662)

The IRC karma score is a bit of a game, and while I don't begrudge
anybody that bit of fun, for various reasons I think it best that it
not travel outside of #koha for risk of it being taken to seriously.

There is a practice on the #code4lib channel that I think is a good
one: each year, during the conference, karma scores are zeroed out.
At the risk of derailing this thread -- I'm inclined to do that at the
beginning of 2014.  At Chris Cormack's request, I've zeroed his (and
zeroed mine as well).

Regards,

Galen
-- 
Galen Charlton
Manager of Implementation
Equinox Software, Inc. / The Open Source Experts
email:  gmc at esilibrary.com
direct: +1 770-709-5581
cell:   +1 404-984-4366
skype:  gmcharlt
web:    http://www.esilibrary.com/
Supporting Koha and Evergreen: http://koha-community.org &
http://evergreen-ils.org