[Mapserver-dev] MapServer CVS access and long term support

[Frank Warmerdam]

Daniel Morissette wrote:
> What do you think? Is this asking too much from developers before they 
> are allowed to contribute? I think we should have a page somewhere that 
> explains what the rules are for contributing to the software and this 
> would be one of them.

Daniel,

My take is that we shouldn't expect to big a commitment from contributors
or we just drive people away.  Someone wanting to make changes should be
expected to help work out the short term problems.  But if they can't
be there to support their addition in the long term then that's just life.

If the addition is valuable enough, others will pick up maintenance.  If it
isn't "loved" enough by another developer or someone who can fund development
then it will rot, and we may have to strip it out eventually.  I do agree we
can't leave non-functional or mostly broken features in the software for a
long time as it will give MapServer a bad name, though marking some features
as experimental or known-to-have-problems in the documentation would be helpful.

Best regards,
-- 
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I set the clouds in motion - turn up   | Frank Warmerdam, warmerdam at pobox.com
light and sound - activate the windows | http://pobox.com/~warmerdam
and watch the world go round - Rush    | Geospatial Programmer for Rent