On 8/25/23 3:57 AM, Attila Lendvai wrote:
Otherwise I do not get your point: I keep untreated messages with the latest
patch version in my Guix inbox, and file away the others in a separate mbox.
So things are not flat, but have two levels: "to be treated" or "done".
my point is that in a PR based model/workflow things like this is done by a
program. and each brain cycle you spend on maintaining the sanity of your local
inbox, is not spent on hacking, and the results of your effort is not even
mirrored into the inbox of the other contributors.
I was reflecting on what it is about the email-based workflow that I
find difficult, and I think you've highlighted one thing:
With a PR based workflow, there is a program essentially figuring out
the equivalent of the `git send-email` flags and doing the submission
for me. I generally go to the site for a repo's main branch, get
prompted about my recent branch, click a button, and it's submitted.
And you've also highlighted the core of my original message: it's
frustrating to spend effort on the meta of changing code instead of
changing code. There will always be ancillary effort, but it can be
greatly reduced.
this seems like a small thing, but multiply this with every message, and every
potential contributor and maintainer... and then consider its cumulative effect
on the emergent order that we call the Guix community.
A thousand times this.
meta:
the reason i'm contributing to this discussion is not that i'm proposing to
move to some specific other platform right now. it's rather to nudge the
consensus away from the conclusion that the email based workflow is good and is
worth sticking with.
once/if we get closer that consensus, only then should the discussion move on
to collect our requirements and evaluate the free sw solutions that are
available today. which again could be organized much better in a wiki than in
email threads, but that's yet another topic...
I just want to call out that my original message was not strictly about
the email based workflow. I want reduction of cognitive overhead to be
an ongoing goal, whatever that comes to mean.
--
Katherine
