Re: [Gimp-developer] Getting contributors via OpenHatch

[Elle Stone <ellestone ninedegreesbelow com>]

On 06/01/2014 03:49 PM, Ofnuts wrote:

> Call me cynical, but someone that needs really more detailed
> instructions will likely not have the programming background to be a
> useful Gimp developer. Of course I expect potential Gimp contributors to
> be somewhat "already-knowledgeable", at least in the basics of Linux
> application development.  Lines have to be drawn somewhere...

I've shown several people how to build GIMP from git. One person was a c 
coder who wanted to write and submit a patch. Which he did. Another 
person is currently working on a patch.

For these two people the entry barrier of figuring out how to build GIMP 
from git would have been a waste of time.

Coding skills are separable from the software-specific knowledge of how 
to compile from source. I've compiled a lot of software from source, and 
each time there's a unique set of challenges in terms of getting all the 
dependencies in line.

The Calligra build instructions 
(http://community.kde.org/Calligra/Building) make it possible for 
potential new code contributors to all work with the same setup. This way:

*The Calligra developers don't have to worry about whether the potential 
new contributor compiled the software in some odd way that's causing 
problems.

*The potential new contributor doesn't have to reinvent the wheel as 
they figure out how to get all the dependencies installed.

Wouldn't GIMP benefit from similarly precise, step-by-step build 
instructons?

Regards,

Elle Stone