On 04/23/2010 11:39 AM, Manuel López-Ibáñez wrote:
This seems to be the question running around the blogosphere for
several projects. And I would like to ask all people that read this
list but hardly say or do anything.
What reasons keep you from contributing to GCC?
I am going to answer why I think it is, even though I like to think that
I do do something.
GCC has high standards, so anybody attempting to make a contribution for
the first time will likely be requested to go through several revisions
of a patch before it can be accepted.
After having spent considerable effort developing a patch, there can be
a sense that the merit of a patch is somehow related to the amount of
effort expended creating it. Some people don't have a personality well
suited to accepting criticism of something into which they have put a
lot of effort. The result is that in a small number of cases, people
Bad Mouth GCC saying things like: The GCC maintainers are a clique of
elitist idiots that refuse to accept good work from outsiders.
Personally I don't agree with such a view, and I don't think there is
much that can be done about it. There will always be Vocal Discontents,
and trying to accommodate all of them would surly be determental to GCC.
I think that some potential contributors are discouraged from
contributing because they have been frightened away (by the Vocal
Discontents mentioned above) before they can get started.
David Daney
