Andrew Pinski wrote:
100 good patches != good knowledge in one area. Also I think I already submitted 100 good patches but every once in a while I submit a bad one though I think it is good to begin with.
To tangent off this in a rather different direction: One of the things that I've noticed is that GCC's development process doesn't really seem to do much to reward reviews by non-maintainers -- they're not really much of a useful input to the process, much of the time, and I don't see them happening especially often. (I may be overgeneralizing, though.)
Insofar as that's true, I think that's somewhat of a loss. Partly it's a loss because reviewing is a different skill from writing, and maintainers don't get a chance to have any practice at it before becoming maintainers.
It's also a loss in this particular context because 100 good reviews would be a pretty clear sign of a good potential maintainer, I'd think. Even if the reviews are of fairly small things, it's a sign that the person knows what they're capable of accurately reviewing, and a reviewer who's good at reviewing small things and only reviews small things is still a useful asset to the project.
- Brooks
