On Jun 1, 2010, at 8:26 AM, Josh Thompson wrote:
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(This message is to everyone in the community. I added [mentors] to
the
subject to help our mentors know it is of particular importance for
them to
read.)
After reading "Reg: JIRA issue VCL-202" by Kiran N sent on May 28, I
realized
we need some guidelines for contributing large modifications to the
project.
This is the general work flow I'd like to see happen for large
modifications.
Please provide comments and suggestions. Everyone's input is
welcome (and
desired) -- if you are interested in becoming a committer, this
would be a
great place to step up involvement.
(1) State on the vcl-dev list what modification you'd like to make.
Some
background on why the existing codebase doesn't work in your
situation would
be useful. Remember, when you modify existing code, it affects work
being
done by other contributors, which can result in imposing additional
work on
them.
(2) Propose a plan on the vcl-dev list for making the modification.
There may
be others that want the same modification or something similar that
can be
incorporated at the same time. Those people can help develop the
modification. On the other hand, the modification may have a very
negative
affect on some other part of the project. Also, this provides an
opportunity
for existing contributors (those who know the codebase well) to
provide input
on your plan. The plan needs to include how the modification will be
maintained in the future - will you continue to maintain it; will
existing
contributors have to pick it up and maintain it?
(3) Create a JIRA issue to track implementation of the plan and start
developing. This provides a way for others to track work being done
on the
modification and ensures information about the modification will be
added to
the CHANGELOG when the next release is cut.
Seems reasonable to me.
Regards,
Alan
