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Re: Patch pinging
On 27 June 2010 20:45, David Edelsohn <dje.gcc@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sun, Jun 27, 2010 at 5:43 AM, Manuel López-Ibáñez
> <lopezibanez@gmail.com> wrote:
>> On 27 June 2010 11:32, Tobias Burnus <burnus@net-b.de> wrote:
>>> Gerald Pfeifer wrote:
>>>> We actually do have an issue with the Bugzilla instance on gcc.gnu.org
>>>> being rather old, so if anyone with Bugzilla foo wants to donate time
>>>> and effort, looking into upgrading that might be even preferrable.
>>>
>>> See http://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=43011 for more details.
>>>
>>> I concur an update would be very useful!
>>
>> Bah! Someone already volunteered to do it in several occasions.
>> Myself, a long time ago. Someone else a few months ago, Frederic
>> Buclin volunteered to help and Nightstrike in that very same PR. The
>> answer was silence. It is not a matter of volunteers. The problem is
>> elsewhere, deeper in the (mal)functioning of GCC as a project.
>
> Manuel,
>
> The GNU Toolchain projects currently are hampered by a lack of
> volunteers or sponsors to maintain the support infrastructure around
> the core projects. ?The GNU Toolchain projects have not retained a
> diverse community to work on infrastructure like Bugzilla, Issue /
> Patch Tracking, Repository, and Wiki, which usually are
> under-appreciated. ?No companies have stepped up to pay for such work,
> unlike other projects (other than "let us take it over").
In this case, as I point out above, there were volunteers. They didn't
get any answer.
I didn't know this was a problem affecting the whole GNU Toolchain. It
is clear that I don't have the whole picture.
> However, characterizing the GCC project as malfunctioning is not
> correct. ?Acting like a victim because the project does not do what
"Malfunctioning" is perhaps the incorrect term. And I should have said
"a malfunctioning" not "the malfunctioning". I am referring strictly
to this particular issue and to GCC as a free-software
volunteer-community-based project, not as the quality of the software,
not as a corporate project, not to anything else. And of course, this
is a personal, debatable opinion, that certainly some people do not
share (although I feel some do).
I do believe that it is odd that one of the most important
free-software projects in terms of widespread use, a free-software
project that has a technical quality comparable and often superior to
the closed-source counterparts, is still using a bugzilla version that
reached end-of-life more than 2 years ago.
> you want speaks for itself. ?And repeatedly complaining about the
> project certainly does not help GCC attract and inspire new
> volunteers. ?Practical suggestions and contributions of resources
> would be helpful.
I didn't feel that was right to ask for volunteers again to do
something, when there have been volunteers and they have been ignored.
It is true that frustration does not justify an outburst, specially
since I am not volunteering anymore.
Your last two sentences are definitely right. I don't have anything
else new to propose. It is a difficult situation. Good luck. Sorry for
the noise.
Manuel.