[FFmpeg-devel] [RFC] Suggestion for a Nicer Integration with GitHub

[ffmpegandmahanstreamer at e.email]

August 10, 2021 10:37 AM, "Soft Works" <softworkz at hotmail.com> wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> A while ago there was a discussion about moving forward and 
> migrating the ffmpeg development process from the mailing list to 
> another platform (like GitLab).
> That discussion had died without further results and an important 
> takeaway for me was that there are just too many that love this way 
> of interaction and operation and would argue till the end of time 
> against such changes. That’s not meant as a kind of criticism, just 
> an assessment. There a those and those people with different 
> preferences and no doubt that others, who are preferring a more 
> modern and integrated approach like GitHub provides, would be as 
> much rejective when told about having to switch to a mailing list 
> based process.

I do think that if it moves it should move to something self hosted. However people have strong opinions about code forges (Github sucks because of "x", while someone else says gitlab sucks because of "y", and then gitea sucks because of "z", and so on)

> 
> But without doubt, a lot more developers could be attracted to 
> participate in ffmpeg development when it would be accessible in a 
> way like many developers are used to work these days. The ffmpeg 
> mirror on GitHub has 354 PR’s (25k stars, 8k forks!) even though 
> that there’s a big and clear warning shown that PRs won’t be 
> accepted this way. I wonder how many PRs might get submitted once we 
> could actually accept PRs from there.
> 
Anyone who wanted to contribute would send a patch t
> My conclusion from the recent discussion was, that the only way to 
> make a change that could find a larger base of agreement would be a 
> solution that doesn’t make a change at all. What I mean by that is: 
> no moving of the repository, no migration to another platform, no 
> replacement of the mailing-list and leaving everything working 
> as-is. Instead, just add something on-top of it that will allow all 
> those “others” to better accommodate with ffmpeg development.
> I had the idea to build some synchronization between Patchwork and 
> GitHub in a way that it would mirror submitted patches as GitHub 
> pull requests, I didn’t have the time to get on it.
> 

> Just recently, I discovered a very interesting project: 
> https://gitgitgadget.github.io
> 
> This is all about the development of Git itself, which is done via 
> mailing list and they had the same problem, namely developers that 
> could never be convinced of using GitHub instead of the mailing 
> list. That’s how GitGitGadget came to life: 
> https://github.com/gitgitgadget/gitgitgadget/blob/main/DESIGN.md
> 
> Now my suggestion – obviously – is: Adapt the GitGitGadget 
> implementation and employ it for ffmpeg development.

This is a wonderful idea, if it works side in side by the mailing list. I have actually been thinking about this at the back of my head.

But FFMpeg, gstreamer, linux kernel, llvm, qemu, wine, etc... all require a level of technical skill thats higher than most open source projects (like webapps). So if someone can code at that level but cant submit a email patch then the patches you would be getting through web will most likely be "minor" patches that don't really need anything. Sometimes this isn't true however, for example on the page on github there are many patches where theres something non trival fixed but they dont have the time to submit patch to mailing list.

However, with this idea, will people still submit more patches? One of the benefits about github is that you don't need to create a new account and do all that extra stuff. If someone was going to sign up for gitgitgaget already and is going the extra mile, they are the same ones most likely to be willing to sumbit to the mailing list as well.

Nevertheless, I would be excited to see something like this. Hopefully it brings in more patches.
The best approach still in my opinion is what you mentioned earlier: have something that integrates directly with Github and Gitlab as those are the two largest code forges. 
> 
> Please let me know what you think about it.
> 
> softworkz 
> 
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