Re: [Gimp-developer] contribution processes...

[gfxuser <gfx user online de>]

Hi,

I also read your stab. First of all, I'm a friend of acting ordered and 
high code quality, too.
Some thoughts of mine:
1. Yet I haven't found out whether this draft is for 'interaction design 
patches' (whatever this could mean) or for code patches at all. What 
exactly do you mean?
2. The sentence ' There are quite a few (un)written requirements this 
contribution has to adhere to.' is not necessary. Either the 
requirements count and thus are written or not.
3. I read 'for new contributors', so I feel addressed. But then there is 
a list of few requirements a newbie can hardly fulfill. In fact, they 
are important as they try to achieve high quality software. If I was in 
the shoes of the experienced GIMPs team I would have written the same.
But really, as you noticed yourse lf: 'Each one counts and could form a 
barrier of entry'. IIRC GIMP development has a severe lack of 
developers. Why then build the barriers higher? Softening the 
aforementioned requirements with the line 'It has not to be perfect' is 
IMHO too less. However, after reading the stab my first thought was 
'They expect perfect patches'. I suggest to add a line, that, where and 
when contributors can post and discuss their code for review, before 
it's finally contributed as a patch. There are many possibilities 
(mailing lists, IRC, wiki, mail, Bugzilla ...) - to the GIMP team these 
informations are clear, but not to new people. And of course, 
contributors questions wait for answers. Lately I tried to learn from 
the GSoC students questions and asked for answers in the mailing list 
(see 
https://mail.gnome.org/archives/gimp-developer-list/2012-March/msg00193.html). 
I've got no answer yet for two months. So I went to IRC and tried to 
learn from the discussions there. The guys there are friendly, but yet I 
picked up some little pieces, which have yet to be merged to the big 
picture. This may take a while. I don't know whether everybody has 
enough patience.
Another dawn of hope is the GEGL porting matrix. AFAIK most of GIMP is 
ported to GEGL, but there are still some open 'easy to do' tasks - the 
best start for beginners. The matrix starts with the chapter 'How to 
port' - which is empty. How is a beginner supposed to port anything? It 
would also be helpful if somebody regularly concludes some discussions 
of general interest on IRC or the devlist and maintains an up-to-date 
list in the wiki.
Don't get me wrong: my lines may sound like beefing, but I'm meaning 
them constructive. What I'm trying to say is: for newbies it's hard to 
get grips. GIMP team, please, add some words in Peters stab where they 
find all necessary information to contribute on a single point (the 
wiki) and keep these sources complete and up-to-date.
4. What will happen to the GIMP UI brainstorm? Will it be replaced by 
this process? If not, how will a contributor there ever know whether 
his/her proposal is accepted or not? AFAIK proposals end in team reviews 
- and then? Getting this information lets him/her start to implement 
this proposal or avoid needless efforts.

Many lines for a Sunday morning... Grab a properly chilled beverage and 
enjoy ;-) and keep on your good work.

Best regards,

grafxuser