On Thu, Apr 1, 2021 at 9:21 PM Ian Lance Taylor via Gcc <gcc@gcc.gnu.org> wrote: > > On Thu, Apr 1, 2021 at 10:08 AM Nathan Sidwell <nat...@acm.org> wrote: > > > > Richard Biener pointed out dysfunction in the SC. The case of the > > missing question I asked in 2019 also points to that. This response > > gives me no confidence that things will materially change. I call for > > the dissolution of the SC, replacing it with a more open, functional and > > inclusive body (which includes, nothing). > > I'm fine with that in principle. But it's like everything else with > GCC, and with free software in general: someone has to do the work. > We can't literally replace the SC with nothing, at least not unless we > do a much bigger overhaul of the GCC development process: someone has > to decide who is going to have maintainership rights and > responsibilities for different parts of the compiler.
Seeing the word "dysfunction" I don't remember using I want to clarify the non-openess which I intended to criticize. The SC is not "open" because: - it appoints itself (new members, that is) - in fact in theory it should be appointed by the FSF because the SC is the GNU maintainer of GCC - all requests and discussions are _private_ - the SC does not report to the GCC project (it might report to the FSF which it is formally a delegate of) - you can reach the SC only indirectly (unless you know the secret mailing list it operates on) - CC an SC member and hope a request is forwarded now I understand the SC sees itself as buffer between GCC and the FSF (RMS in particular) and it thinks we need to be protected from direct engagement. I think this is wrong. I can very well say NO to RMS myself. I'm actually curious how many of the 13 SC members actively contribute or whether the "SC show" is a one or two persons game and the "13" is just to make the SC appear as a big representative group of people. Thus I request an archive of the SC mailing list be made publically available and the SC discussion from now on take place in an open forum (you can choose to moderate everybody so the discussion while carried out in open is still amongst SC members only). Richard.
