Some thoughts about steerring commitee work

[Ian Lance Taylor]

"Vladimir N. Makarov" <vmakarov@redhat.com> writes:

> >>>I've been lobbying for some time, on IRC, for more people to be able
> >>>to fill in the holes in the maintainership patterns.  Most of the
> >>>existing global maintainers are inactive.  There are areas of the code
> >>>which are not covered by the other maintainership groupings.  Thus
> >>>there are areas where patches go unreviewed.  I believe, though I have
> >>>not been told, that non-algorithmic global maintainer is intended to
> >>>address this gap.  Making me one of the people with that role is most
> >>>likely following the principle that the person who complains gets the
> >>>job.
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>Ian, may be I am wrong but I see a problem that some important for all
> >>GCC community things are discussed only on IRC.  Not all people are on
> >>IRC.  Moreover some people avoiding the IRC for some reasons.
> >>
> >
> >There will always be private conversations about GCC.  You can't
> >prevent that.  IRC is less private than other places.
> >
> >When I said lobbying, I meant only that I complained about it.  I
> >could have complained about it in e-mail the same way.  There were no
> >important conversations about it on IRC.  If the SC members use IRC at
> >all, they don't use #gcc.
> >  I'm having a hard time interpreting your comments because I don't
> >understand what you want to be done differently.
> >
> >
> I am not against IRC.  We have free speech right (which means some
> responsibility too).  We could (and we do) discuss whatever we want
> wherever we want with whom we want.  I just wish that some discussion
> important for all community were discussed not only IRC because they
> involve not only people who are on IRC.

I'm still honestly trying to figure out just what you mean here.

Do you mean: the discussion that there are holes in maintainership
patterns is important for the community, and should have been
discussed on the mailing list, rather than IRC?  To me that doesn't
rise to the level of being important for the community.  I mean, I
toss off all sorts of comments all the time.  In my last message I
tossed off a comment about reload being our major problem on the i386.
I hope and assume that most people ignore most of these comments.  It
wouldn't make sense for me or anyone to send out an e-mail note for
every random thought.

Or do you mean something eles?

The important thing for the community is that Diego and I have now
been appointed non-algorithmic global maintainers.  That was duly
announced.  I guess we could have had a discussion about whether Diego
and I should have been appointed, or whether that position should have
been created at all.  That discussion does have some importance for
the community, but it didn't happen on IRC, at least not when I was
there.  If it happened at all, it happened on the steering committee
mailing list.  So, is that what you mean?  Or am I just totally
offbase?

If I'm getting carried away with this topic, let me know.

Ian