On 24.03.2014 10:22, Herbert Duerr wrote:
We're on a good way to a healthy AOO 4.1 release so we should avoid
the pitfalls that prevented a timely AOO 4.1 Beta release.
Let's examine this negative example a bit further, so we can all learn
from it: A commit [1] stopped the Beta and forced the only respin that
was needed despite the massive changes+improvements that went into the
code base.
[1] http://svn.apache.org/r1547732
The commit broke the installation of language packs and this breakage
wasn't discussed before. The responsible developer sneaked that
train-wreck in with a mega-patch under a non-suspicious comment. I
don't remember him discussing the breakage of language packs before
and that the creation of patches could negatively influences the
usability of the language packs wasn't discussed either.
I was the one who caused this build breaker and I am sorry for it. It
was not the first and will not be the last build breaker that I
introduced. I did not announce it in advance, because -- maybe this is
hard to believe -- I did not do it on purpose. I also don't have a
crystal ball that let's me see my future errors. Otherwise all my code
changes would be error free, which, sadly, they are not. It was an
honest mistake in a very complex feature (enabling our build system to
create patches). I made the error in a file that was directly linked to
the new feature. I did not see, at the time, that it would affect the
regular build.
Of course one could say "It happens", but since that developer gets
VERY annoying if "It happens" to anyone else the same casual attitude
would be inappropriate.
What's worse is that the commit comment [2] for unbreaking the
language packs was "Wrong initialization of ." which is completely
unusable. It didn't even mention language packs. That they were broken
and now they are fixed. And what's that '.' Is this some magic
hyper-linked dot? We should better use commit messages that can stand
on their own.
You are absolutely right. As an explanation, but not as excuse: what
happend with this particular comment is, if I recall correctly, that I
accidentally hit RETURN in mid-sentence. And then I was too lazy to
look up SVN documentation and find out how to fix the comment. Instead
I relied on all the necessary information being present in the issue
description (for example see
https://issues.apache.org/ooo/show_bug.cgi?id=124272#c11) and provided
the correct comment in the issue
(https://issues.apache.org/ooo/show_bug.cgi?id=124272#c14). I had the
chance to fix the broken comment when I merged the change into trunk.
But that seemed to me to be a bit dishonest, like I where trying to
cover up a mistake.
[2] http://svn.apache.org/r1573613
So in short: Be careful, be professional, don't do unto others what
you wouldn't want them do unto you, and yes "It happens" and we have
to deal with it. Positively if possible that is.
I am not exactly sure what that is supposed to mean. If you have a
problem with anything I have done, except from the build breaker, please
be more explicit.
I just have one wish. I don't have a problem with my errors being
pointed out in the public. After more than a decade as developer in an
open source project I have grown a thick skin. But please don't do that
to others. That might discourage potential developers from joining our
project.
Regards,
Andre
Herbert
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