[forum] XFree86's Future and thoughts and suggestions

[Rob Taylor]

Nononono! I'm advocating a separate list for technical users as well as a
list for devlopment of xfree86 - i.e. a place to send all the people who
send mails like:



> Subject: Creating an XImage
>
> I am trying to create an XImage, but after the function call to
> XCreateImage(), my XImage pointer's value is 0.  I really don't know much
> about Xlib.  I want to create an XImage for image data that I
> already have.
>


and similar, anyone who reads devel or read xpert regularly knows what i
mean - if you're intersted in actually doing development of xfree86 the S/N
ratio is very low indeed.

The only reason i mentioned bugs below is that bugs are more likely to be
reported by users who don't know the devlopment cycle (i.e. to use bugzilla)
on a technical mailing list.

Rob Taylor
Senior Developer    robt at flyingpig dot com
Flying Pig Systems  http://www.flyingpig.com


> -----Original Message-----
> From: forum-admin@XFree86.Org [mailto:forum-admin@XFree86.Org]On Behalf
> Of G O Economou
> Sent: 03 April 2003 18:49
> To: forum@xfree86.org
> Subject: RE: [forum] XFree86's Future and thoughts and suggestions
>
>
>
> But Rob, as pointed out by Jimmy, we already have a Bug list
> called XFree86.
> Development of new code or its maintenance is the devel@ list.
>
> It seemed to me that you were advocating a new Bugzilla list.
> There really
> isn't
> reason for that.  We don't maintain Bugzilla we use it.  Issues with
> Bugzilla or its
> setup should go to XFree86 or within Bugzilla itself.  If you create a
> separate Bugzilla
> list people will think it's about Bugzilla not the work contained
> within it.
>  That's why
> there are only 2 lists, to avoid confusion.
>
> Georgina
>
>
>
> Why is creating one new mailing list a lot of work? that is all i advocate
> below.
>
> Please explain your objection
>
> Rob Taylor
> Senior Developer robt at flyingpig dot com
> Flying Pig Systems http://www.flyingpig.com
>
> > Rob, that sounds like allot of work and rather complicated.
> > Next you'll be
> > advocating, as some groups do, all discussions should be on
> Bugzilla.. At
> > that point, I think there would be few takers.
> >
> > Georgina
> >
> > -------Original Message-------
> >
> > From: forum@XFree86.Org
> > Date: Thursday, April 03, 2003 05:21:47 AM
> > To: forum@xfree86.org
> > Subject: RE: [forum] XFree86's Future and thoughts and suggestions
> >
> > > On Wed, Apr 02, 2003 at 07:49:20PM +0530, Biju Chacko wrote:
> > > > On Wed, 2003-04-02 at 15:52, Egbert Eich wrote:
> > > > > Would a named list of maintainers make a difference?
> > > > > This however is no guarantee for speedy handling
> > > > > as maintainers may be limited with their time.
> > > >
> > > > I think it's fairly obvious that the current way of doing things has
> > > > been less than optimal. We all understand that maintainers
> > have limited
> > > > resources (thats true of pretty much all of us).
> > > >
> > > > I think the current complaint is that patches seemingly
> > disappear into a
> > > > black hole. I think the maintainers need to do *something* to
> > > > acknowledge patches, even if it's a one line 'Received. Will
> > look at it
> > > > in the next month or so."
> > >
> > > You are aware that each patch you send get an ACK as return,
> as well as
> > > a patch number, are you ?
> >
> > LOL.. Yes, you send a patch having tried to discuss how+why you're
> > implementing it on xpert, but everyone ignored you, then you
> get a machine
> > generated reply, then noone ever talks to you again....
> >
> >
> > Thats the problem that needs to be fixed. Hopefully bugzilla, suitably
> > policed, will fix the latter half of the problem, but I don't see
> > how to fix
> > the 1st half - If the current set of main xfree86 developers are
> > unable/unwilling to discuss anything with new developers, then
> there's no
> > process change that can fix this.
> >
> > also, please, core developers don't reply saying 'we *do* reply to new
> > developers' go look though your xpert archives and you will find that
> > overwhelmingly this isn't the case.
> >
> >
> > So what can we do to rectify this?
> >
> > One thing that comes to mind is that xpert (or devel as now
> > known) is still
> > being used as a place where newbies log bugs or ask for config help. Its
> > purpose seems to be *both* for developing xfree86 and developing
> > *with* X11.
> > I suspect this doesn't help, and rather than directing these
> > posts elswhere,
> > they get actively pandered to!!
> >
> > So my 1st suggestion. Lets have separate lists for the development of
> > xfree86 (devel) and for development with/setup issues with
> xfree86 (tech).
> > Any actual bugs that arise in tech should be logged in
> bugzilla, and then
> > they can go and be discussed on devel.
> >
> >
> > How does that sound to everyone?
> >
> >
> >
> > Rob Taylor mailto:robt@flyingpig.com
> > Flying Pig Systems http://www.flyingpig.com
> > Tel: +44 20 8280 9230
> >
> >
>
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