Re: Automated testing framework (was: V3: SPARC bug and tree freeze)

[Richard Stallman <rms at gnu dot org>]

    Actually, since you refuse to publish this kind of stuff, I think it
    is quite reasonable to send this stuff to you.  You might then realize
    that it does take a significant amount of time and that most of the
    work can be eliminated by simply publishing the forms and instructions.

I know all about this.  As the maintainer of Emacs at some times, and
of GCC at other times, I had to take care of legal papers like every
other maintainer.  In most cases it was quick and easy, once I had
read the contribution in question (which I had to do anyway).

The hard cases were (1) in peculiar situations where it wasn't obvious
what to do, and (2) when someone had trouble getting disclaimers
signed or wanted to change the wording.  Nothing can make those hard
cases easy.  However, you can (and should) ask for help with #1, and
with the new system, Brian Youmans will often take care of #2.

Every other GNU maintainer of an FSF-copyrighted package does this
job.  Please try doing it, and you will find it not so hard.

I say that "you", the GCC maintainers should do it.  But that doesn't
mean Jeff Law in particular has to do it.

    If people were making mistakes with the previous online instructions or
    forms, then that means those instructions need to be clarified.

That is easy to say, but no matter how much work we put into trying to
make them clear, people will continue to misunderstand them.  Many of
our contributors do not even read English very well.  Making a
foolproof description that people will essentially never misunderstand
is a very hard job, and it is a foolish risk.

Fortunately, the complexity of these rules is small compared with what
you have to know to maintain GCC, and a few smart people who decide to
learn these rules, ask questions as needed to assure they understand
right, and then carry them out, will not find it tiring.