Re: [gentoo-dev] sys-devel/gcc::mgorny up for testing

[Rich Freeman]

On Mon, Dec 8, 2014 at 9:00 AM, Anthony G. Basile <blueness@g.o> wrote:
>
> Forking code does not address the QA issues currently against
> toolchain.eclass.  The two issues are orthogonal and I don't think I
> connected them in my emails.  I disagree with forking but have no right to
> obstruct it and would not.  In that respect, I'm simply voicing my opinion
> as a dev.   However regarding how QA should operate, I am operating with the
> guidelines of gentoo self-governance.
>

++

Honestly, I don't think internal forks are terribly helpful either in
the long run.  Sometimes they seem to be needed at some point to at
least push things along, but obviously it would be better to focus on
one package.  I just don't want to be critical of those who want to
fork things, as they usually have very legitimate concerns and at
least by forking they're producing something new that people can play
with and test, which can help us cross the gap from where we are to
where we want to be.

A big reason there are forks is that sometimes people just get fed up
with trying to work with people and would prefer to go do something
even if it basically means re-inventing the wheel.

I was thinking about this earlier today after being somewhat
frustrated with a completely different FOSS issue.  The nature of
Gentoo tends to draw a lot of people who want to achieve their vision
of technical perfection.  This makes it really hard for all of us to
work together.  I'll admit that there are times I get sick of some of
the debates on the lists/etc, and I'm sure everybody on all sides of
every issue tends to feel the same way.  We keep coming back because
we think there is something here worth fighting for, and sometimes
even worth compromising for.

Forks can be a way to try out new things, and turning theoretical
arguments into practical comparisons.  Sure, they can also be
incredible "wastes" of time, but so is just about anything that any of
us do for fun.  I think that creating something new is far more
productive than arguing on lists, even if in the end the work gets
abandoned (though this is rarely the case - usually something gets
re-appropriated which is the whole point of FOSS).  Forks are also a
great way to get new blood into an arcane subject - making incremental
changes on a mature codebase is often a lot harder than making
incremental changes on a new codebase that likely leaves out 50% of
the corner cases.

If we don't have friendly internal competition, it will just make it
that much harder to stay relevant.  Let's just try to keep it
friendly.  :)

--
Rich