On Jan 12, 2022, at 7:24 AM, Nick Wellnhofer via xml <xml gnome org> wrote:On 10/01/2022 20:47, Mike Dalessio wrote: Although I'm relieved, the potential loss of maintainers from the project <https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/libxml2/-/issues/319#note_1348651> was alarming. Perhaps another goal to consider for the year is to expand the pool of contributors and maintainers. I (and others, I assume) am interested in volunteering more time so that the burden isn't carried by you alone, and so that if in the future you're unable to secure funding the user community will be able to sustain that loss.
Thanks again, and please think about what work volunteers can pick up to get more involved.
Anyone is invited to help with maintenance. But I can't think of many simple issues for people to get started. Fixing bugs and reviewing merge requests often requires deep knowledge of the code base which in turn requires to invest considerable amounts of time. On the other hand, everyone has to start somewhere. The best way is probably to start working on interesting issues, learn from any mistakes you make, and repeat.
Welcome back, Nick! I plan to contribute by posting patches to upstream changes from Apple’s port of libxml2 and libxslt. While I know enough about libxml2 and libxslt to fix some bugs, I am not in a place where I could be a maintainer. (I also have limited time to spend on these projects based on assigned tasks at work.)
I also plan to link up CVE-IDs that Apple assigned to specific issues: Personally, I think the main problem is funding. The pool of competent programmers willing to spend months of their time to work on a rather outdated code base implementing mostly legacy technology for free is tiny or even non-existent. It's really the large corporations who could make a difference by sponsoring OSS maintenance directly. I'm sure you can find people like me who would work on OSS at a discount, but not without any monetary compensation.
When an official process is set up for funding libxml2/libxslt (per your original email), I’ll inquire about contributing to it at work.
Dave
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