Date: Sat, 29 Jan 2000 11:40:50 +0100 From: Jeroen Ruigrok van der Werven <asmodai@bart.nl> To: Brian Fundakowski Feldman <green@FreeBSD.org> Cc: Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com>, Garrett Wollman <wollman@khavrinen.lcs.mit.edu>, Dag-Erling Smorgrav <des@flood.ping.uio.no>, Philippe Charnier <charnier@FreeBSD.org>, cvs-committers@FreeBSD.org, cvs-all@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: cvs commit: src/usr.sbin/inetd inetd.8 inetd.c Message-ID: <20000129114050.B54038@lucifer.bart.nl> In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.4.21.0001290225080.18581-100000@green.dyndns.org>; from green@FreeBSD.org on Sat, Jan 29, 2000 at 02:35:02AM -0500 References: <20000129131302.Z583@freebie.lemis.com> <Pine.BSF.4.21.0001290225080.18581-100000@green.dyndns.org>
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-On [20000129 08:40], Brian Fundakowski Feldman (green@FreeBSD.org) wrote: >As being a maintainer of code which I only wrote a very small bit of, but >am very familiar with, dd(1), I put MAINTAINER in the Makefile to signify >this. I want to show people that > 1. I know what this code does > 2. I know what this code should do > 3. if there are disputes about it, or problems with it, you > can come to me > and > 4. Since I have a very good understanding of all of this, I would > appreciate if you let me review anything you plan to do to it. That all seems fair enough. >I see being maintainer as an issue of who should be messing with this code >_since_ they're people who have messed with this code a lot, and know this >code well. In fact, it's a very good thing to have MAINTAINER in case >you (for example) don't know the right person that you would want to >contact directly for things which regard whatever it is. There is just one problem with all of this. Maintainership always assumes one person. This is a very basic flaw with the idea or the concept people have with MAINTAINER. Heck, I know I have about 4 to 6 people to turn to with newbus related questions. And frankly, I see neither of them really claiming maintainership over the other. IMHO, this is probably the best and most civilised maintained piece of code over others due to the way the committers deal with each other and the changes the make to that system. >I really don't think it's fair to impede others with an undue delay, so >if this happens and someone makes a commit without the maintainer's >specific permission, the maintainer should really not make a big fuss >unless it is a huge mistake. Agreed. Mayhaps I am being too optimistic in my nature, but I always like to see the `why did he/she do that' and `what did I forget what they saw' before thinking very negatively about something somebody did. >I don't like the fact that being maintainer of something is seen as a >big threatening gesture from some people or to some people, and really >don't think it should be carried as such. Which shouldn't be perceived as such as well. It is fun to be part of the committers rank, but in all honesty, if I were a new src committer, I'd have no clue what part of the system I could (help) maintain, since so many people claim exclusively authority over a certain piece of code turf. This is really the `programmer's baby' syndrome acting up in the form of MAINTAINER, for which it was never meant, IMHO. >Once again, I've been too verbose. Sorry :) Only by being verbose does one understand what the other tries to express how he or she feels about certain things in this new world of non personal contact. I know i appreciate it to get to know more about some people and how they view certain things. Makes my work easier as well. =) -- Jeroen Ruigrok van der Werven Network- and systemadministrator <asmodai@bart.nl> bART Internet Services / BSD: Technical excellence at its best VIA NET.WORKS Netherlands Tel: +31 - (0) 10 - 240 39 70 http://www.bart.nl To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe cvs-all" in the body of the message
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