On Wed, Oct 7, 2020 at 12:11 PM Matias N. <mat...@imap.cc> wrote: > Hi, > I think that for any non-coding/boring task the best bet (barring a paid > employee) > is to crowdsource the effort. You could compare this to the task of > enforcing code style: > it would be a huge task to convert all NuttX files to follow the code > style and most likely > no one would ever offer to do it on their own. However, distributing the > load to every PR > author to adapt files they touch is a good way to make fair distribution > of the load. > > I think for IP clearance a CI check could be added by using the scripts I > made: each file touched > by a PR could be checked to see if it can be "Apachized" safely. If so, > the PR author would have to > include this change in the PR in a separate commit, with a commit message > holding relevant > output of the tool for tracing. If some files become problematic for this > process, they can be added > to an "ignored" list (or a "already converted" list). If that sounds > reasonable, I could look into it. > > Of course, that is the slow approach and can only considered a help (to > slowly reduce the problem > and avoid continuing to increase it), so for something more critical as IP > clearance I think > it should be possible to further distribute batches of files to > verify/clear to committers over some period > of time. From our website, I count ~15 non-mentor commiters. If each of > those would clear 50 files, > that gets us 1500 files cleared. That is ~15% of .c/.h files. That could > be repeated periodically (every couple > of months, for example) and it would get us much closer to compliance, not > counting the files cleared via the CI > procedure detailed before. > > A final point I would make is this: for such a large codebase, this kind > of non-coding tasks > (for example, documentation) will require the biggest effort and thus > require more help. In that > regard, growing the number of committers is very important. A call for > non-coders to help with CI > and documentation may attract some users interested in NuttX but not > confident yet with the codebase.
We need all of the above: 1. Integrate license clearing with ongoing work like we are already doing for nxstyle, *AND* 2. Ongoing calls for non-coders to participate (license clearing, documentation, artwork, marketing), *AND* 3. Seek funding and/or corporate support to pay for professional license clearing Regarding item 3, it is in the best interest of companies that use NuttX in their products to help get the license clearing done, not only to make sure i's are dotted and t's are crossed, but also because it is necessary for NuttX to graduate and become an Apache Top Level Project. That is crucial for this project's long-term health. Also it will speed up releases because we won't need to wait unknown lengths of time for IPMC votes for every release. We need to get out of Incubator Purgatory so that Greg will be able to donate the trademarks and all the NuttX user and developer community can have peace of mind that this project will be there to support them. Nathan
