Hive contributors are responsible for documenting their own commits, although many seem to be unaware of this or too busy with other tasks. How can we boost the number of jiras that get documented?
Our current process is to put a TODOC*<release>* label on each committed issue that needs wiki documentation, then remove it when the doc is done. But nobody tallies the TODOC labels at release time or pressures contributors to do their documentation, so we have a large backlog of unfinished doc tasks. For several years I've monitored the dev@hive mailing list for issues that should be documented in the wiki. Whenever a committed patch needs doc and the contributor hasn't taken care of it, I add a TODOC label and write a doc note naming new configuration parameters, reserved words, or HiveQL syntax. (This is convenient for searches.) I also give links to places in the wiki where the docs belong. Soon, I'll stop monitoring the Hive mailing lists and writing doc notes. My time can be better spent doing documentation, instead of just pointing out that it needs to be done. But I can't tackle the whole backlog, and many future commits won't even get a TODOC label. What can we do to improve the Hive doc process? -- Lefty
