[webkit-dev] Patch process - let's make it better

[Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton]

On 7/13/09, Luke Kenneth Casson Leighton <luke.leighton at googlemail.com> wrote:
> > I concur with Maciej.
>  >
>  >  Luke, in some other culture your posts are already considered derogatory and
>  >  insulting.

 also  - (i apologise for not thinking of this earlier) - it's worth
emphasising that
 early on in the #16401 development process, when things were going well, the
 development was progressing rapidly, and i was collecting valuable
contributions,
 advice and input from several sources, including apple employees as well as
 free software sources, i felt absolutely no need to swear.

 then, as the sheer scale of the work began to become clear to the reviewers,
 they began to feel overwhelmed, and, in an effort to reduce stress
levels, began
 to throw up barriers.

 i began to provide technical counter-arguments and justifications for
the progress,
 and still i did not feel any need to swear.

 i was asked to take several weeks worth of steps backwards, and began to feel
 pressurised: eight weeks at eleven hour days has a price.  alp toker
noticed that things were not going swimmingly and asked that the cost
- financial and psychological - be taken into consideration.

 it was not.

 at this point, with "rules" and "procedures" and "processes" being
placed over-and-above actual people, things started to break down.

 now we're suddenly gone from development being fun and exciting into
development that is about fulfilling your duty and fulfilling the
committment to the free software community that you serve,
_especially_ in the face of continued hostility and complete lack of
respect.

 this is the experience that you, apple, should never subject anyone
to - should not be should not have been responsible for subjecting
onto _anyone_.

i trust that you, apple, will learn from this breakdown in
communications.  i trust that the changes to procedures and processes
that you will make will help you to spot such things well in advance
and act accordingly and appropriately, to make contributing to webkit
as interesting and exciting as it should be.

lastly, ariya, i've mentioned this elsewhere, but it's worth
reiterating, here.  as an experienced and gifted developer, i can take
any code, from anywhere, and can pretty much immediately make useful
contributions to it.  i then also have the skills to manage, build and
release that code.  not everyone has the ability to do that.

so i put up with a lot of flak from people such as apple employees in
order to serve those users and developers who do _not_ have the
ability that i do.

and i invite you to ask yourselves: whom do _you_ serve?

the answer to that question is the reason why i make the
recommendation that webkit gets a charter.

l.