This summarizes some rambling on IRC about revising the BIPS process. Right now, the BIPS process is a bit haphazard. Previously, BIPS were in a git repo, and the BIPS on the wiki were locked against editing. The BIPS editor at the time started off well, but was eventually M.I.A. So the BIPS "home" moved de facto to where everyone was reading them anyway, the wiki. They were made editable, and it became easier to Just Pick A Number And Write One. However, this inevitably became a bit disorganized. Further, there was a recent incident -- easily reverted -- where someone hopped on the wiki and started arbitrarily editing an existing standard.
BIPs need to move back to git, in my opinion. Standards should be hash-sealed against corruption. Anything less would be uncivilized, and un-bitcoin. However, many on IRC pointed out requiring a git pull request might be a burdensome process, and discourage some contributors. The following is a sketch of an improved process. 1) BIP Draft. Modelled after IETF drafts. Anybody may submit a BIP draft, as long as it meets two very loose requirements: * At least somewhat related to bitcoin. Note, I did not say "crypto-currency". * Formatted similarly to existing BIPs (i.e. markdown, or whatever the community prefers) BIP drafts may be submitted via git pull request, or by emailing an attachment to bips.edi...@bitcoin.org. This mirrors the Linux kernel change submission process: git is preferred, but there is always a non-git method for folks who cannot or do not wish to use git or github. BIP drafts are stored in git://github.com/bitcoin/bips.git/drafts/ and are not automatically assigned a BIPS number. 2) Time passes. Software for BIP drafts is developed, tested, published, and publicly discussed in a typical open source manner. 3) If interest and use cases remain strong, a BIP number may be requested, and the BIP draft is moved to git://github.com/bitcoin/bips.git main directory. 4) If there is general consensus that the BIP should be adopted, the BIP status is changed to "accepted." There are no specified time limits. Sometimes consensus about a BIP is reached in days, sometimes 12+ months or more. It varies widely depending on the feature's complexity and impact. As with the IETF, it will be q -- Jeff Garzik Senior Software Engineer and open source evangelist BitPay, Inc. https://bitpay.com/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ October Webinars: Code for Performance Free Intel webinars can help you accelerate application performance. Explore tips for MPI, OpenMP, advanced profiling, and more. Get the most from the latest Intel processors and coprocessors. See abstracts and register > http://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/clk?id=60135031&iu=/4140/ostg.clktrk _______________________________________________ Bitcoin-development mailing list Bitcoin-development@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bitcoin-development
