[vtk-developers] VTK code review / testing / integration workflow

[Berk Geveci]

Hi Bill,

The goal is not to have more process. It is to implement a workflow with
fun-to-use tools such that we can continue to attract developers to VTK.
VTK development is lively. We have done a lot of great stuff last year,
both new development and maintenance, and we have great things coming next
year.

In my humble opinion, what we are doing poorly is attracting new
developers. I think toolchain and workflow play a role in this. Not
communicating well is another part. I'd like to attract more people to
contribute code and more people to do reviews. Also, our bug tracker is
collecting dust. Lots of bug reports are going in but it gets very little
attention. I can't even remember when I looked at it last.

Here are some statistics from openhub.net (website formerly known as ohloh):

VTK:

30 Day Summary
Jul 21 2014 — Aug 20 2014
152 Commits
19 Contributors

12 Month Summary
Aug 20 2013 — Aug 20 2014
2393 Commits
 Down -965 (28%) from previous 12 months
64 Contributors
Down -6 (8%) from previous 12 months

Still a lot of commits but going down.

So I'd like to see us slowly migrating towards tools that are more
attractive and facilitate collaboration with the larger community.

Frankly, I believe that our current set of tools get in the way. First of
all, they all require creating accounts to do anything. An account for bug
tracker, another for Gerrit, another for Wiki, another 2 for the mailing
lists. We should have presence where people already hang out and don't have
to create new accounts. Github, stackoverflow, Google+ etc. Second of all,
they are all clunky at best. Usability does matter to people. Finally,
there are a lot new resources available out there and we are not tapping
into it as best as we can. We should be using Travis and Jenkins in
addition to CDash and CDash @ Home for example.

So I don't think that this conversation is overkill. These discussions have
a natural tendency to go on forever, I agree. So let's try to keep to the
point and make some decisions soon.

Best,
-berk






On Mon, Aug 25, 2014 at 4:54 PM, Bill Lorensen <bill.lorensen at gmail.com>
wrote:

> BTW the new gerrit UI is a bit prettier:
> https://android-review.googlesource.com/#/q/status:open
>
> I'm a little concerned that we spend too much time on process and not
> enough time on improving VTK. But, I'll go with the consensus of the
> people who still work for a living. If the new process is too
> difficult for an old guy like me, I'll just spend my extra time with
> ITK.
>
> Bill
>
>
> On Mon, Aug 25, 2014 at 4:45 PM, Sean McBride <sean at rogue-research.com>
> wrote:
> > On Mon, 25 Aug 2014 15:50:59 -0400, David Cole via vtk-developers said:
> >
> >>A fantasy feature for me would be that the system injects a step
> >>1.5/2.5 in the developer workflow, and automatically chooses 3-5
> >>reviewers for you based on reviewers "signing up" for reviewing certain
> >>modules, or perhaps based on recent-ish commits in the same files...
> >
> > That would be a great addition.  I often don't know who to add as a
> reviewer, and I've been tinkering with VTK for years.  Imagine a newbie!  A
> person can use 'git log' and 'git blame' to get some guesses, and that
> could be automated.  Of course, sometimes that results in suggesting
> someone no longer involved with VTK or the infamous 'VTK developers', but
> still it would help to automate it.
> >
> > Cheers,
> >
> > --
> > ____________________________________________________________
> > Sean McBride, B. Eng                 sean at rogue-research.com
> > Rogue Research                        www.rogue-research.com
> > Mac Software Developer              Montréal, Québec, Canada
> >
> >
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>
>
> --
> Unpaid intern in BillsBasement at noware dot com
>
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