[FFmpeg-devel] Project orientation

[Nicolas George]

Oneric (12020-07-07):
> As someone who recently only submitted a single, simple patch, I haven't seen 
> mail-based dev as an annoyance, rather the contrary as this avoids the burden 
> of creating yet another account on some website, that I'll have to manage.
> 
> There also already seems to be some automatic testing, as Patchwork send me an 
> off-list mail about failing tests. (I did not set SAMPLES when running make 
> fate locally as it was not mentioned clearly on the main "Contribute" site on 
> the webpage. https://ffmpeg.org/developer.html .) It can probably be improved 
> though.

Thanks for this insight.

> What was frustating however, was the lack of any form of response to the patch 
> for over a month, despite ml-pings.
> 
> In my experience the review activity of a project is independend of its 
> development workflow being mail or web based.

Would you agree with what I say there:
https://ffmpeg.org/pipermail/ffmpeg-devel/2020-July/265898.html
? i.e. that we would need to have rules to make sure somebody feels
responsible for reviewing patches?

> On top of that the revised patch with updated FATE-samples had to change files 
> with CRLF line endings that are not marked as such in .gitattributes. This 
> prompted patchwork to be unable to apply the patch. Even though this is the 
> only correct way to update these samples and left me concerned the patch might 
> be being silently ignored because it fails on patchworks.
> 

> I also feel compelled to point out, that a switch to a web-based interface 
> instead of plaintext emails can be a hurdle for devs with impaired vision, who 
> might rely on customised mail interfaces, screen readers and/or braille 
> displays as a Web-page is more complicated in that regard (especially with js).
> While I myself am fortunate enough to not needing to rely on such a setup, I 
> personally know devs (not working on ffmpeg afaik) that do.

And thanks for reminding us of that. It is an even stronger argument
that "I personally find web interface annoying", although they are both
caused by the same underlying reality: the need to be able to use the
tools of choice.

Regards,

-- 
  Nicolas George
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