[webkit-dev] Yet another bug-less change hosed the tree.

[Brent Fulgham]

On Mon, May 10, 2010 at 2:44 PM, Adam Barth <abarth at webkit.org> wrote:
> On Mon, May 10, 2010 at 2:30 PM, Geoffrey Garen <ggaren at apple.com> wrote:
>>> 2) Your patch can be vetted by the various bots that analyze patches
>>> posted for review.
>>
>> True, if what you're really asking for is not just a bug report but also a "cooling off period" during which
>> you wait for a result from the EWS bot, even if you get a review right away. You get greater value in the
>> case of a bad patch, but also greater cost in the case of every patch.
>
> Yes, this way of doing things has more overhead for you personally but
> saves overhead for everyone else in the project.  The question, as I
> see it, is which of these quantities is larger.  The more people that
> work on the project, the bigger the multiplier on the right.

I'm not sure this is totally correct.  I'm sure more people than
ggaren find the TPS cover sheet / cooling off period to be an added
cost.  These added costs apply to *all* developers, whether they land
bad patches or not.

You seem to be advocating a system that imposes a (perhaps small) cost
on every development 'transaction' as insurance against the (possibly
high) cost of a build breakage.  I'm not sure the cost/benefit is
clear here.

>>> When you go cowboy and commit without
>>> building and testing, you impose costs on everyone else in the
>>> project.
>>
>> Probably not fair to conflate shooting a six-shooter with committing without filling out a bugzilla form first.

To be fair, committing without at least building seems like a very
unfriendly thing to do. :-)

-Brent