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

[Helena Mitasova]

On Feb 4, 2008, at 6:28 PM, Dylan Beaudette wrote:

> 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?

time is probably not a good measure - one person can show in one week
what another one shows (or has time to show) in a month or more.
It should be based on the contributions (this can be kept simple
or as complicated as imaginable - e.g. type, size, time interval of  
contributions etc.) -
I would vote for simple.
>
>> [*] 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.

that is what practically happens because somebody has to submit the  
new code
and that developer (I guess it is most often Markus) usually  
communicates
with the new developer and tests the submitted code - that is the  
time consuming part,
so that is where you want to provide the svn access as soon as  
reasonably possible.
Having to test and submit both your own code and a code of one or  
more other
people for 6 months can be quite a challenge, especially when the  
developer
is particularly active and capable (and we like to see those).

I would suggest something more like an incubation time - in our case
the PSC developer  would motion that a new developer is up for SVN  
access
vote so the PSC can look at what
he has contributed, test the changes that he has submitted and after
additional set of submissions that PSC has a chance to carefully  
monitor,
the PSC developer would ask for a vote. PSC may decide that more time  
is needed -
but that probably won't happen too often,

Helena



> 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
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