Making It Easier To Start Working On Bugzilla

[Jochen Wiedmann]

Max Kanat-Alexander wrote:

> 	Any other ideas? Any other barriers that new developers out there have
> run into? I'd really like to have a *lot* of developers, which would in
> turn lead to a lot of reviewers.

IMO, the Bugzilla developers have a clearly different attitude when 
handling contributed patches than other Open Source projects. There may 
be reasons for certain policies (quality, in particular), but to me, the 
policies are sometimes overemphasized.

When I, as the committer of another Open Source project, receive a 
patch, then it is in my interest to encourage the contributor. Of 
course, if the patch is clearly wrong, overcomplicated, or whatever, 
then I have to reject the patch. But that is rarely the case. Typically, 
  there are some oddities. Does the developer obeye style guides? Is the 
indentation right? Is the wording right (in particular, is the 
contributor using proper english)?

At that point, I have two choices: First, I can tell the contributor 
what I dislike. Second, I can fix the problems for myself and pull the 
patch in. (Or, if a review is required, I can attach a modified version 
of the patch.)

 From my experience, Bugzilla developers will *always* choose the first 
alternative. I do not know, what the reasons are. It may be lack of 
time, but my personal impression is, that accepting the patch will 
sometimes be less work than reviewing a modified patch again.

Do you think, it is encouraging to provide a patch the next time, if my 
suggestion is rejected simply because the reviewer does not like my 
wording? Do you think it is likely that I take the work the next time?

But even when rejecting a patch, I do believe, that developers can be 
more encouraging to the contributor. For example, I once contributed a 
patch to a file, which was removed some weeks later. The review occurred 
even more weeks later and the developer took that for a reason to reject 
my patch. Okay, that's understandable. But I would expect to receive at 
least a hint, where I've got to look now. Being not as deep in the 
current happenings, it took me almost half an hour to find the new place.


Jochen