[GRASS-PSC] Motion: Grant SVN write access for Ivan Shmakov

[Dylan Beaudette]

On Sunday 03 February 2008, Hamish wrote:
> Markus Neteler wrote:
> > I would like to propose to grant SVN write access to Ivan Shmakov
> > who got very active to suggest improvements for the core libraries of
> > GRASS. You will have seen his contributions in the grass-dev mailing
> > list.
>
> Hi,
>
> Ivan seems like a decent fellow and I welcome his expertise. So "+1"
> from me.
>
>
> I would like to informally propose that in future we wait for a
> contributer to be active on the -dev mailing list for some time
> (perhaps 6 months?) before raising the question of granting SVN write
> access. This gives the user a chance to develop a track record,
> demonstrate an understanding of the codebase*, and get a feel for how
> our little development team works. In addition it gives PSC voters a
> chance to be confident in our votes rather than rubber stamping our
> approval on a mostly unknown entity.

You bring up some good points. Markus did provide a nice run down of Ivan's 
activity- and betwee that and watching the dev list I thought enough time had 
past. I am not as familiar with the code base as the main developers, and 
therefore my vote does not carry the same weight as the more seasoned devs. 
How can we formalize / generalize the approach that you are suggesting? Would 
a mandatory time limit (you suggested 6 months) be sufficient?

> [*] I think we are in pretty good shape, but merely due to the age of
> the codebase we seem to have a large number of undocumented "this is
> done for historical reasons" spots to watch out for. Whereas the
> initial reaction of a newcomer is to immediately try and fix something
> that looks awkward, then get shot down by a long time devel. This bears
> the potential for bad feelings and lost volunteers. The question is how
> to mentor + promote an eager and competent helper to full developer
> status while protecting the codebase from well meaning yet
> unintentional damage?
>

Although it might require a little coordination- maybe it would be possible 
for the senior devs to 'adopt' a junior. Not exactly sure how this would pan 
out, but it having a mentor for the first 6 months (or however long we decide 
on) might make the learning process simpler. This approach would really only 
be appropriate for those volunteers truly interested in SVN write access- so 
perhaps those individuals should mention this upfront. 

just some ideas...

Dylan'

>
> Hamish
>
>
>
>
>
>      
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-- 
Dylan Beaudette
Soil Resource Laboratory
http://casoilresource.lawr.ucdavis.edu/
University of California at Davis
530.754.7341