[Scummvm-devel] Team Charter

Arnaud Boutonné strangerke at scummvm.org
Thu Jan 18 10:09:42 CET 2018


Hi Tarek

Sorry for the late answer. Not that I didn't have time to read it, I just
didn't know exactly what to answer in order to be useful.
I remember that mail from Max, and I agree with everything even if I would
*eventually* rephrase a sentence or two.

I didn't know what to say, because I thought that we were already applying
this. For example, when Max was around, I was particularly appreciating the
way he was reviewing code.
I'm still convinced today that my code was more polished (by far) when he
was (finally ;)) telling it was decent and mergeable.

So, well, I'm even surprised we haven't put that somewhere on the wiki
already, because on the main lines this is what is told to newcomers when
they are accepted in the team.

Concerning the use of -devel for asking questions, I must confess I'm not
doing it that much, for various reasons.
The main one is that I don't consider myself able to handle huge changes in
the common code, so I only work on engines and therefore directly
communicate with the people concerned (if any :)).
Discussions on -devel often turn into noisy rants not related to the
original topic, so it's useless to generate noise when only 2 or 3 people
are involved. No idea how other people feel about that.

But I think anyway that this part is already covered: it's not mentioned in
the text to automatically use -devel, I think that some common sense is
enough to determine how many people are potentially involved.


So, all in all, I'm fully in favor to add that in the wiki. Thanks for
getting this email out of oblivion :)

Best regards,
Arnaud


On Wed, Jan 17, 2018 at 1:59 AM, Tarek Soliman <tsoliman at scummvm.org> wrote:

> On Mon, Jan 15, 2018 at 01:12:49AM -0600, Colin Snover wrote:
> > I think this is a good idea. I have found on other projects that a short
> > document describing goals and expectations, which gets revised from time
> > to time, can do a lot to promote mutual understanding and give
> > transparency and confidence around the “why”s and “how”s of everything.
> > I hope I can provide useful feedback and that we can all come up with
> > something great together.
>
> Thanks for taking the time to reply :)
>
> > If I understand correctly what you are trying to do here, I think it is
> > important to communicate up front that making a bunch of changes is not
> > the goal here. Instead, the goal is simply to get an open conversation
> > going so we can actually figure these things out together and write them
> > down. Is this correct?
>
> Exactly, I would like everyone to participate so that everyone can be
> heard.
>
> > One thing I noticed is that the quoted email from Max seems to speak
> > more about a code of conduct than a direction.
>
> Yes it was only meant as a starting point for the conversation.
> This is one of those things that can't be based on a single (former)
> member.
>
> > I think having guidelines
> > like these can be really valuable, and, based on the lack of response so
> > far (and my own feelings), I wonder if this is too big and overwhelming
> > to start with.
>
> Yes I was mildly surprised that there was no response.
> My first thought was that people didn't have time or are not reading
> -devel.
> The other thread getting traction made this less likely the case.
>
> My next thought was that maybe people don't think it is safe to do so.
> A handful of people have privately expressed that they withhold their
> thoughts
> and opinions from -devel and #scummvm because they don't want to start any
> drama. I figured starting with a code of conduct would increase the safety.
>
> > Could you clarify what kind of specific feedback are you
> > looking for here, and when you would like it by? I also have a
> > suggestion for a place to start which may be more tractable, if you are
> > interested.
>
> I am looking for general thoughts about the idea itself
> e.g. "This is a good idea, here are my suggestions ..."
>   or "This is a bad idea because [reasons]"
>   or "Here's what I think about [concept]"
>
> I am also looking for review of the actual points. Some of them might have
> been
> relevant back when Max wrote them. We are now almost 7 years later. Things
> may
> have changed, invalidating some of it. I am also looking for new ideas.
> e.g. "We should think twice before we post to -devel becasue [reasons]"
>   or "We should only do code reviews in situations where ..."
>   or "It is totally ok nowadays to [one of the listed bad behaviors]
> becasue [reasons]"
>   or "We also should explicitly mention [unlisted idea]"
>
> > It would also be helpful for me if you have some examples of these sorts
> > of documents from other OSS projects which you feel are particularly
> > eloquent or useful in guiding this discussion. I would be interested in
> > seeing what others come up with too, if they know of any.
>
> This isn't inspired by other OSS projects, so I don't have any handy.
> This is solely based on my observations about team communication and
> behavior.
>
> Thanks,
> Tarek
>
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> Scummvm-devel at lists.scummvm.org
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>
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