Down at ApacheCon at our BoF we had a good discussion about what might
help people who want to contribute to Derby but feel they don't have the
database internals background needed. It was generally recognized that
there is a pretty hefty learning curve to be able to work on some of the
core parts of Derby such as the SQL compiler and the kernel. The skills
and background for someone writing database applications is pretty
different from someone writing database internals.
The problem is that Derby support can not scale to handle the growing
number of users unless more members of the community are able to get to
know the code and start contributing.
One thought we had was that those of us who know a certain area of Derby
can make ourselves available to mentor/provide guidance to those who
want to work in that area but don't feel qualified.
For example, let's say there is a bug in the compiler that is causing me
problems. I log the bug, but nobody seems to be responding (scratch
your own itch and all that). I could send an email out saying "I'd like
to get this fixed, and am willing to do the work, but I don't know
anything about the compiler. Is anyone willing to help walk me through
this?" Then someone who knows the compiler can volunteer to help.
Alternately, someone who knows the compiler can respond to a JIRA item
saying "I don't have time to implement, test, and document this, but I'd
be willing to help walk you through how you might do this."
I think this is pretty workable. It does take a willingness on both
sides -- from the specialists to not try to fix everything themselves
(not scalable long-term) and instead make themselves available to
provide guidance, and from the non-specialists to jump in with the
support of a specialist.
David
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