Re: Documentation

[Radovan Semancik <radovan.semancik@evolveum.com>]

On 05/02/2016 01:52 PM, Howard Chu wrote:
> Patch submission does not require subscribing to a mailing list. 
> Submission to the ITS doesn't require an account/signup at all. There 
> is no such contribution barrier. In contrast, any system that requires 
> creating an account first is a significant barrier, IME.

Mailing list and github-like submissions are not mutually exclusive. 
What I am asking for is an additional method for submitting 
contributions. I do not ask to stop the mail-based submission process.

I've used both methods. And I fully accept that preferences may vary. 
According to my personal experience github-like method is more 
convenient and I perceive it as a (much) lower barrier than mailing a 
patch. Huge number of developers already have github accounts, so there 
is no additional barrier for these people. I would definitely prefer the 
github option if it was available. And obviously I'm not alone. This is 
may not be strictly about technicalities. It may be more about the 
subjective perception of the contributors. Gavin asked for feedback so I 
am providing humble subjective feedback of a potential contributor. 
Exactly as requested.

> The majority of submitters are "fire and forget" - nobody is checking 
> back frequently to see what happened to their submission.

True. But if I'm contributing I want to know whether my contribution 
made it to the main code base. At the very least. I would like to know 
whether I still need to maintain my private fork or whether I can switch 
to the primary code base. If the contribution was rejected I would like 
to know why it was rejected and what I need to improve for the 
contribution to be accepted. Github tracks the contribution process, 
allows to discuss the contribution and sends notification mails. Very 
convenient.

--
Radovan Semancik
Software Architect
evolveum.com