[Qgis-developer] qgis organigram, code maintainers

[Marco Hugentobler]

Dear qgis devs,

In the psc, we recently talked about having more formalised processes and 
clearer responsibilities in the qgis team.

From the development side, I'd like to have code maintainers for different 
parts of the code, e.g. for the different plugins and providers and parts of 
the qgis libs. A code maintainer would review patches for the corresponding 
part, coordinate the efforts of interested developers, answer questions and 
make sure the code is in a clean and up-to-date state. I hope that such an 
organisation will help us to better coordinate our efforts and make it 
clearer for new developers where to ask for guidance. It would also be 
visible which modules currently lack a maintainer (e.g. in my opinion GRASS 
module).

The code maintainers would add one or more lines to their e-mail signature 
such to make it clear for everyone, e.g.

Tim Sutton
.....
Maintainer QGIS raster module
... 


I could imagine the following parts of code:

- raster: Tim
- python bindings: Martin
- core lib: Martin
- gui lib: Martin
- app (dialogs): Tim
- mapserver export: Gary
- delimited text: Gary
- print composer: Steven
- wfs, wms: Marco
- renderers: Marco

and other parts that need maintainers:
- GRASS plugin/provider
- postgres provider
- ogr provider
- gps plugin/provider
- georeferencer plugin
- project file


What are your opinions about this this in general? Do you like it too or is it 
just unnecessary complication?

For the areas of code, I'm sure I missed a lot of things. And probably there 
are even volounteers for the second part of the list...


Regards,
Marco



-- 
Dr. Marco Hugentobler
Institute of Cartography
ETH Zurich
Technical Advisor QGIS Project Steering Committee
marco.hugentobler at karto.baug.ethz.ch