Re: [Gimp-developer] Easy access for contributors

[Alexandre Prokoudine <alexandre prokoudine gmail com>]

On Thu, Mar 15, 2012 at 3:08 PM, Aleksandar Kovac wrote:

>> If a developer can't set up his/her own environment, they cant do the job.
>> Period. We don't even accept GSoC students who have not done this before
>> applying. And honestly, its not rocket science. Just stuff you HAVE TO know
>> as a developer. Things gimp depends on etc. There are plenty of advice and
>> scripts for linux and even mac. Build environment on windows is a bit more
>> complex... and is contributing on windows.
>
>
> Alexia, with all possible and imaginable respect I have for you (I truly do)
> and all other great girls and guys here:
> '...Just stuff you HAVE TO know...', sounds like an awful thing to say now
> that you have mastered it. It sounds as if you're burning bridges with an
> elitist smirk. I haven't seen a person yet born with knowledge of setting up
> a development environment.

Let me provide you some background.

I'm actively participating at GSoC as primary and backup admin since
2007. What I've seen is that if you don't go a little hard on students
in the beginning and demand that they have a build environment ready
prior to beginning of the project, chances of a failure are very, very
high. This is why after a while the ready build env + the two-patches
rule became a usual thing: projects learnt that the hard way, after
repeated failures.

GIMP, for instance, wasn't accepted to GSoC in 2006 or 2007 (can't
remember exactly) after it failed two projects out of seven. These
days quite a lot of new features come from GSoC students, for some
projects GSoC brings over 50% of new features. Would you impose the
risk of failure by lowering the bar?

I've personally seen two projects badly affected by the lack of a
working development environment. One of the projects failed
completely, the other was a moderate success, but the student couldn't
deliver everything he was going to. Both of them were a _month_ behind
the schedule.

> I am not suggesting a 'GIMP dev school' (not now, at least ;).

Actually, it's a good idea. We had a hackfest last year in Germany. If
the team can agree on a certain date (we are mostly employees rather
than employers), it's doable.

Alexandre Prokoudine
http://libregraphicsworld.org