Re: how to contribute to use/slot deps: was Re: [gentoo-dev] Multiple Repo Support

[Curtis Napier]

Dan Meltzer wrote:
> On 12/24/05, Ciaran McCreesh <ciaranm@g.o> wrote:
>
>>On Fri, 23 Dec 2005 23:56:37 -0800 Brian Harring <ferringb@g.o>
>>wrote:
>>| It's really pretty simple- get off your butt and chip in if you want
>>| it, else you're on _our_ timeline (eg, we implement it when we deem
>>| it sane/ready to go).
>>
>>Is Portage development done to support the needs of those of us who
>>provide the tree, or is the tree expected to be restricted to whatever
>>Portage developers feel like implementing?
>
>
> I'd say the latter.
>
> The tree is restricted to what is implemented in portage, and as it is
> a volunteer organization, what is implemented is what the portage
> dev's feel like implementing.
>
> If you want more to be implemented, submit patches.
>

hmmmmmmm, from reading the emails, bug reports and irc chats of portage 
devs, non-portage devs and end users I would say it's a little bit of 
both. The non-portage devs are using a tool provided by the portage devs 
that allows them to create the Gentoo distro. Those two teams work 
together to ensure the best possible tool. If the portage devs ONLY did 
what they felt like (or the opposite, only did what the other devs told 
them and ignored their own intimate knowledge of portage) then portage 
would not be where it is today. True developement is a subtle play of 
ideas back and forth between everyone involved resulting in an excellent 
piece of software.

Yes, the portage devs have the final say since they are the ones doing 
the actual work but they would be remiss if they simply ignored everyone 
else and did what they wanted (although they could very well do this if 
they choose). Just as the non-portage devs would be remiss if we ignored 
everyone else while doing our work.

The one doing the work is the one with the intimate knowledge of 
internals so their opinion should count very highly when it comes to 
implementing/not-implementing those ideas but not all of the ideas come 
from the portage-devs. Some of the ideas come from the non-portage-dev 
people who use it on a daily basis.

As so many have said, Gentoo is an all volunteer project so you get what 
we have time to give you but we *do* listen to the ideas of others. We 
don't always implement those ideas but we do listen to them at the very 
least. You never know where the next great idea that will make things 
faster/more efficient is going to come from and we would be stupid to 
ignore them.

confucius says: No dev is an island.



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