On Fri, Aug 07, 2009 at 11:00:48PM +0200, Jeremias Maerki wrote: > On 07.08.2009 22:09:01 Simon Pepping wrote: > > On Fri, Aug 07, 2009 at 09:59:42PM +0200, Jeremias Maerki wrote: > > > > > > Other interesting statistics: > > ... snip ... > > Thanks for the links. > > > > > Generally, the (updated) report sounds fine. > > > > > > One thing that concerns me a bit is the growing patch queue in Batik and > > > FOP. > > > > > ... snip ... > > > > > > Good patches that don't get processed will drive potential committers > > > away at some point. And patches can go out of date. But I still have no > > > recipe to get our project more active. I've been trying to recruit FOP > > > users to participate in the development ever since I went independent, > > > with only little success. Some people are often happier to pay for a > > > little extension or fix (which made a good part of my income in the last > > > few years) than to dive in themselves and take more control. And most > > > simply expect others to work for them for free. And then there's the > > > problem that spare fun time to do things not work/client-related is > > > usually very limited. Sigh. > > > > I agree. Do you want this concern included in the report? I prefer to > > give a realistic view of the project's position. Therefore at some > > point such concerns need to be expressed. Is that already in this > > report? > > I guess it is. Probably just me venting frustration. The board knows > since the forming of the XML Graphics project that Batik has not many > active people. It has 3 active committers. That's been the same since > 2005 although the activity has quieted down in the last 3-4 months. I > just fear a serious problem for Batik if one of the three went away. FOP > has 7 active committers in 2009 so is in a more comfortable position. > Maybe you can add those numbers just to have stated that once in a while. > After all, the board members change, too. OTOH, if the board sees that > some activity is happening and oversight is there, they have no problem > with us.
It is something we should be aware of ourselves. Let us include in this report a reflection on the long-term situation, with the above concerns about the patch queues and the number of active committers. It is good to include such considerations at least once a year. If Jeremias or someone else does not do it earlier, I will give it a try Monday evening. > Still, the general problem is the same for the whole project: so many > users, so few contributors. We just have to make sure we don't forget to > turn recurring contributors into committers. I noted two more active contributors on the FOP list, and one very active contributor on the Batik list. Simon -- Simon Pepping home page: http://www.leverkruid.eu --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected]
