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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 05/01/2014 14:07, vfclists . wrote:<br>
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<div>When people ask questions like this it is because they are
making comparisons with other projects which are more open, or
in the case of Lazarus easier to follow. <br>
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<br>
How, unless you are part of the project, do you know, if a project
is "more" open. How do you know they do not have a private list?
Just because we answered truthfully, other projects may (if asked)
deny it.<br>
<br>
Also even if you knew of the absence of a private list, how do you
know that developers do not use personal mail instead (also private).<br>
<br>
In my experience any reasonable sized project (not just open source)
need some mean of "in group only" discussion. Not because the
content is "top secret" but because "too many cooks spoil the
broth", and on public issues (even read only) you always get
additional "cooks".<br>
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<div class="gmail_extra"><br>
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<div class="gmail_extra">I follow a few groups such as
pharo-dev and squeak-dev regularly and others such as web2py
occasionally. In all instances once I log on to my email I
can quickly get a good idea of how things are moving, ie you
know how features are progressing and what bugs are being
fixed. <br>
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<br>
Well, now you ssay what you are missing. But that info is not on the
dev list either.<br>
<br>
The lazarus project is organized differently. We simple do not have
a central place for this info. (that is anything on the topic, that
is on top of mantis and svn logs)<br>
<br>
Unless I can spot something on the svn log, most of the time
(greater 95% [1]), I do not know what others work on. <br>
[1] This figure is after eliminating knowledge I have from looking
at svn logs. Since I do look at them, I actually have some idea.<br>
<br>
This is true for features and bugs. <br>
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<div class="gmail_extra">I couldn't understand why I coudn't
get an idea of developments in Lazarus<b> just by following
the mailing lists</b> and wondered if there was another
mailing list. The mailing list you are referring to is not
listed at <a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="http://lists.lazarus.freepascal.org/mailman/listinfo">http://lists.lazarus.freepascal.org/mailman/listinfo</a>
and it is clearly not related to development of features as
is generally understood. <br>
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<br>
New features are provided by volunteers. Let me give an example.<br>
<br>
I started with work on a new debugger about 3 or 4 month back. My
original plan (or rather hope) was, that I get to that sometime next
summer. Then I just decided from one minute to the next. A few days
later, first commits, and any body looking at svn would have known
(And some did notice, as some did ask on the forum)<br>
<br>
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<div class="gmail_extra">The wiki only tells you about
features after they have been implemented. It doesn't give
an idea of how and why they evolved the way they did.</div>
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And neither does the developers list. Most features go the way, that
the original author had in mind. Sometimes there is something
(feedback, additional idea) on the forum, or normal mailing list.
Sometime the idea gets picked up sometimes not.<br>
In a few cases such a mail (even though it could, and probably
should be public) is on the dev list. But just because a mail goes
on the wrong list, does not mean the list is wrong. Same as good a
private mail good have been sent. This is not a reason to open the
list, but to pay more attention on which list we post.<br>
When I started to contribute, and was not yet on the list, I did
exchange some private mails with some of the developers. So list or
not, private communication will and does happen.<br>
<br>
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<div class="gmail_extra">FWIW I have just spent over an hour
exploring Mantis and it looks like the place where a lot of
Lazarus development related discussions occur. </div>
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Actually we try not to discuss on mantis. Mantis is mainly to
identify what is wrong (and that may take a lot of question and
answer).<br>
In a few cases though, it may be that it includes discussions
(rather than notes) how best to fix it<br>
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<div class="gmail_extra">Obviously it is a complex
multiplatform system which is rather mature in internet
years and has gathered quite an amount of cruft and I can
understand why its developers prefer to focus on fixing
existing issues rather than spending/wasting time debating
new features.<br>
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Every developper decides for themself when to fix a bug [2] or do a
feature. And each one has his own reasons.<br>
[2] if you break in, you fix it, is a rule we all follow.<br>
<br>
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