[VETO] old ws -- packages, define-behavior

[Stephen J. Turnbull]

>>>>> "ms" == Michael Sperber <sperber at informatik.uni-tuebingen.de> writes:

>>>>> "Stephen" == Stephen J Turnbull <stephen at xemacs.org> writes:

    Stephen> Are you sure you're not just miffed because after quite a
    Stephen> while doing work in your own work spaces, you're ready to
    Stephen> go public with a couple of them, but Ben shows up with 10
    Stephen> work spaces, and shows every sign of wanting to commit
    Stephen> one a day for the next 10 days?

    ms> I don't think so---my position hasn't changed over the years,

OK.  That's true, but I appreciate you taking the time to reconsider
and confirm.

    ms> and both Eric and Marcus tell me that there are problems with
    ms> Ben's patches, but so far no insurmountable ones.

[Aside: I really wish they would post their code.  Is there some
reason why they can't use a branch in the XEmacs repository rather
than a separate repository or (horrors!) just keep workspaces around?]

    Stephen> But based on the commit pace over the last year and a
    Stephen> half, I don't see any justification for making a policy
    Stephen> of slowing Ben down just to slow him down.

    ms> That's not what I'm asking---I'm asking him to structure the
    ms> work the same way everyone else has been structuring their
    ms> work.  This will, as a consequence (as you pointed out) the
    ms> effect of slowing him down, but that's not in any way the
    ms> primary objective here.

I'm sorry, I shouldn't be trying to judge your "objectives", they are
what they are, and I'm sure they are as you say.  My point is that
slowing Ben down will be the primary _effect_.

Look at it from Ben's point of view: what's in it for him?  Are his
patches going to get better or faster (let alone "careful" and
"timely") review if he makes more and more effort to structure them as
clean changesets?

I certainly can't promise any such thing.  For example, I queried a
recent Ben micropatch on design grounds, and he replied "here's what
I'm trying to do; feel free to do better."  Well, I will, but it will
take a while!  As for the big stuff ... well, I've decided that I
"don't like" lots of the details of The Great Mule Merge, but even
after two and a half years I still haven't articulated exactly what!

Can you promise to do better than that?  Most likely, you can.  But
can you afford to?  And will you?

And it's not just you; this will require varying amounts of effort on
the part of all reviewers and developers.


-- 
Institute of Policy and Planning Sciences     http://turnbull.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp
University of Tsukuba                    Tennodai 1-1-1 Tsukuba 305-8573 JAPAN
               Ask not how you can "do" free software business;
              ask what your business can "do for" free software.