There has been enough discussion on this topic already, so I think that an immediate vote on the validity of Dongjoon's technical justification for his veto of the "Retain migration logic ... in Spark 4.0.x" proposal is in order. That technical justification has been called into question, and the guidance at https://www.apache.org/foundation/glossary.html#Veto leaves it to the PMC to determine whether the technical justification is valid: "In case of doubt, deciding whether a technical justification is valid is up to the PMC." As such, only PMC votes will decide the outcome of this vote. This is neither a vote on a code change itself not a vote on whether a package is ready for release, so it a procedural vote on whether the technical justification is valid. As such, the vote will be decided by a simple majority where +1 votes hold that the technical justification is not valid and -1 votes hold that the technical justification is valid.
I would request that at least PMC members post more than just a naked vote, but instead endeavor to give some reason why they have assessed the technical justification as they have. I'll start: Despite all of the discussion related to Dongjoon's -1 vote, I must confess to still not being entirely clear on what is his technical justification for that veto. I see claims that including an admonition in the Spark 4.0.x release notes that a prior upgrade to 3.5.5 is required to maintain the integrity of already existing data streams, and I see assertions about the maintenance burden that including the migration logic would impose on future Spark versions, but I don't think that I see any other technical objections. I do not believe that the claimed technical justification is valid. In requiring that a veto of a code change be accompanied by a technical justification for the veto, the Apache Voting Process states that: "To prevent vetoes from being used capriciously, the voter must provide with the veto a technical justification showing why the change is bad (opens a security exposure, negatively affects performance, etc. ). A veto without a justification is invalid and has no weight." This strongly implies that there must be something objectively wrong with the proposed code change in that it causes significant harm in the way of opening a security exposure, negatively affecting performance, or presumably other significant user harms or perhaps even developer burdens. The proposed addition of the migration logic to Spark 4.0.x does not cause any harm to Spark's users. For many users, those not using streaming data, the change will have no effect. For streaming users the change will be beneficial, not harmful. Neither do I find the claim of excessive, ongoing developer burden to be persuasive. The changes are tiny and easily maintained -- in fact, it wouldn't surprise me if no further changes to this migration logic would be needed for a very long time. Some of what we are left with is just an expression of preference for a technical alternative to the migration logic -- i.e. including in the release notes an admonition to first upgrade to 3.5.5. But the Apache Voting Process does not say that in the face of code alternatives A and B, a qualified voter is justified in vetoing A if they prefer B. Instead, the Voting Process strongly implies that something more is needed to justify a veto, as I've already covered. Thus I don't find Dongjoon's preference for the release notes option to be adequate justification for the veto. The only remaining question I see is whether including "databricks" in the Apache Code is ever allowed or if any such instance must be expunged as soon as possible. I am not aware of any ASF policy that strictly forbids the mention of a vendor in Apache code for any reason, even if that vendor has a product based on Apache code, even if that vendor enjoys a uniquely influential position vis a vis some Apache code or project. Certainly the PMC has a duty to see to it that neither Databricks nor any other vendor exercises influence or control over Apache Spark outside of the established Apache process, but the proposed migration code changes do not advantage Databricks -- if anything they remove a minor avenue of influence, and simply need to mention "databricks" once in order match and transform a configuration into a vendor neutral equivalent. While not optimal, I can't find such a one-time inclusion of "databricks" to be truly offensive to any non-technical policy concern -- certainly not offensive to the point that it outweighs the user advantage of including the migration logic in Spark 4.0.x. In summary, I do not find Dongjoon's given technical justification to be valid relative to the Apache requirements for a veto of a code change, so I must vote... +1 --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe e-mail: dev-unsubscr...@spark.apache.org
