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Re: ARC & GNOME [Was: How we make decisions...]


To follow up further.  I am currently working with Sun's ARC chairs
to figure out ways to make our internal process work better with
external projects.  One thing that we've discussed is that it would
make the most sense for Sun's ARC chairs to review the GNOME GEP
process.  The GEP process is, in many ways, similar to Sun's internal
ARC process.

What Sun has been doing so far has been to try and fit Sun's GNOME
product into our internal ARC process.  Since this process is internal
and confidential, much of the documentation work we do can not easily
be shared with the community.  Therefore it does not really get properly
reviewed by the community developers who best know their code.  Also,
recommendations that ARC makes do not always get filtered back to the
community in useful ways.

To try and fix these problems, ARC is taking a closer look at the
community GEP process.  One of the purposes of the GEP process is to
more clearly document interface change - which is the area that ARC
is most concerned with.  My hope is that Sun's ARC community can
in the future work more with the community GEP process to meet its
goals.  This way, the efforts of Sun employees more closely follows
community process and is publically available for community use.

I think that a lot can be done with the GEP process as it exists today,
though discussion about how to further improve or enhance the process
would likely be a useful outcome.  Many people in the GNOME community
have complained that the current process isn't fun, and figuring out
ways to make the process work better will likely translate to the
process being less painful.  My hope is that having some dedicated Sun
resources participating in this process will give it some additional
energy.

To make it easier for the ARC chairs to review the GEP process, I have
compiled the following list of links which points to the GEP-related
resources and communications that have transpired on the community
mailing lists.  This list might also be useful to people in the
community who want to learn more about the GEP process.  By
taking a look at the dicussions about past GEP cases, this might
highlight  some areas where the process could be improved to make
it more useful and fun.

I think the fact that GEP discussion is scattered on a half-dozen
mailing list highlights one difficulty with the GEP process that
could be improved.  A mail alias where GEP related discussion is
archived would ensure that information about change management can
easily be found for reference.  This could be managed by setting up
a mail alias and letting people know to cc: GEP related emails to
that list.

List of GEP cases:

  http://developer.gnome.org/gep/list.html

The first GEP case, GEP-0, describes the GEP process and how it works.

  http://developer.gnome.org/gep/gep-0.html

GEP Cases in CVS:

  http://cvs.gnome.org/viewcvs/gep/
  http://cvs.gnome.org/viewcvs/gep/proposals/

GEP Announce mail alias

This is the alias where GEP cases are formally announced.

  http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gep-announce/

GEP Discussion on public GNOME mail archives (by date and alias)

The following links point to the "sorted by thread" archives for
the respective lists.  The specific GEP emails can be found by
simply searching for "GEP" in the page.

+  June, 2001
   http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gnome-hackers/2001-June/thread.html
   http://mail.gnome.org/archives/foundation-list/2001-June/thread.html
   Gnome Enhancement Procedure

+  August, 2002
   http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gnome-hackers/2002-August/thread.html
   Getting GEP process going
   GEP 1, GEP3, GEP4

   http://mail.gnome.org/archives/orbit-list/2002-August/thread.html
   GEP 1

   http://mail.gnome.org/archives/desktop-devel-list/2002-August/thread.html
   GEP 2, GEP 4

+  September, 2002
   http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gnome-hackers/2002-September/thread.html
   GEP 1, GEP 3, GEP 4, GEP 5

   http://mail.gnome.org/archives/orbit-list/2002-September/thread.html
   GEP 1, GEP 5, GEP 8

   http://mail.gnome.org/archives/desktop-devel-list/2002-September/thread.html
   GEP 2, GEP 4

   http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gnome-components-list/2002-September/thread.html
   GEP 3

   http://mail.gnome.org/archives/usability/2002-September/thread.html
   GEP 6

   http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gtk-devel-list/2002-September/thread.html
   GEP 6

   http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gnome-libs-devel/2002-September/thread.html
   GEP 7

   http://mail.gnome.org/archives/foundation-list/2002-September/thread.html
   GEP discussion

+  October, 2002
   http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gnome-hackers/2002-October/thread.html
   GEP 3

   http://mail.gnome.org/archives/desktop-devel-list/2002-October/thread.html
   GEP 2, GEP 4

   http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gnome-components-list/2002-October/thread.html
   GEP 3, GEP 5

   http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gtk-devel-list/2002-October/thread.html
   GEP 5

   http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gnome-libs-devel/2002-October/thread.html
   GEP 7

   http://mail.gnome.org/archives/orbit-list/2002-October/thread.html
   GEP 5, GEP 8

+  November, 2002
   http://mail.gnome.org/archives/desktop-devel-list/2002-November/thread.html
   GEP 2

+  March, 2003
   http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gnome-components-list/2003-March/thread.html
   GEP 9

   http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gnome-hackers/2003-March/thread.html
   GEP 10 & 11

   http://mail.gnome.org/archives/desktop-devel-list/2003-March/thread.html
   GEP 10 & 11

+  April 2003
   http://mail.gnome.org/archives/desktop-devel-list/2003-April/thread.html
   GEP 11

   http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gnome-components-list/2003-April/thread.html
   GEP 12

+  May 2003
   http://mail.gnome.org/archives/desktop-devel-list/2003-May/thread.html
   GEP 10, GEP 11

   http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gnome-components-list/2003-May/thread.html
   GEP 12

+  June 2003
   http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gnome-components-list/2003-June/thread.html


Brian Cameron wrote:


Jeff:


<quote who="Brian Cameron">


The ARC process is similar in some ways to the GEP process.  So if there
is an interest in the community to review this process and determine how
to make it better and less painful, then I would like to let you know that 
within Sun there is a similar interest in making our process better and
less painful.

Perhaps this is an area where Sun and the GNOME community could work
together, review each other's processes and see if we can figure out a way 
to make each others process more fun and useful for everyone.
I, for one, welcome our new ARC leaders. ;-) Is there any ARC documentation 
online that we could read?
Thanks, Jeff. Over the past several months I have been working with the Sun 
ARC community towards having better engagements with FOSS (Free/Open Source
Software) projects, and the GNOME project specifically.  Right now they are
reviewing the GEP process and getting a better understanding of it.  Once
they are done with that, I think they will start contributing to the
discussion.  Might take a few days, though.




--

Brian
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