[vtk-developers] Avoiding MR stagnation (was: rules proposal drop "+1")

Ken Martin ken.martin at kitware.com
Thu Jul 7 11:18:30 EDT 2016


For me I try to avoid +1 as it still leaves the main developer stuck. For
me +2 means the buildbots look green and I looked at the changes and didn't
see anything obvious that looks bad (mainly in terms of approach). It does
not mean I downloaded the topic, compiled it, tested it, understood every
line, etc.  Maybe that is wrong but I feel like the main responsibility
still lies with the topic author and I am just doing a sanity check.

On Thu, Jul 7, 2016 at 10:18 AM, Robert Maynard <robert.maynard at kitware.com>
wrote:

> Currently I believe the issue is that the reviewer is equally at
> responsible for watching the dashboard for regressions caused by MR.
>
> Moving to a simple Yes/No +1/No system where the responsibility for
> fixing failures falls to the author would solve the hesitation of
> reviewers to give +2.
>
> On Thu, Jul 7, 2016 at 10:10 AM, Will Schroeder
> <will.schroeder at kitware.com> wrote:
> > It's a time problem: I see chunks of code which at a superficial level
> seem
> > fine and I'm willing to give it a +1. The problem with a +2 is that
> issuing
> > such a score has implications that I've jumped into the code at a deep
> level
> > and can vouch for it. This can occasionally mean hours or days of work
> hence
> > the delay. Maybe it's because I'm a chicken and should have faith (or
> > otherwise ensure) that there is enough testing to proof it out, but I
> feel
> > reluctant in some cases to give a +2 without enough due diligence which
> > takes time I often don't have. Besides more testing, one thing that might
> > help would be more "documentation" providing me with the confidence that
> > important issues have been considered and accounted for.....
> >
> > Best,
> > W
> >
> >
> > On Thu, Jul 7, 2016 at 9:56 AM, Brad King <brad.king at kitware.com> wrote:
> >>
> >> On 07/07/2016 08:56 AM, David E DeMarle wrote:
> >> > In either case both authors and reviewers are responsible for
> >> > watching the dashboards and addressing issues that come up afterward.
> >>
> >> This is the real reason people are hesitant to +2.  If we strengthen
> >> the meaning of +1 then people will just say "LGTM" or something else
> >> to "approve" without taking responsibility.  Posting +1 is a common
> >> convention for voting and should not be given stronger meaning.
> >>
> >> The real problem we'd like to address is stagnation of MRs that
> >> are ready but not merged.  The syntax for approving is not very
> >> important.  We should identify reasons MRs stagnate and address
> >> them directly:
> >>
> >> * It may be a governance problem.  No one has responsibility
> >>   to ensure everything that is ready gets merged.
> >>
> >> * It may be a workflow problem, like waiting for buildbot results
> >>   to approve and then forgetting.  The new workflow:buildbots
> >>   label may help here.
> >>
> >> -Brad
> >>
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> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > William J. Schroeder, PhD
> > Kitware, Inc. - Building the World's Technical Computing Software
> > 28 Corporate Drive
> > Clifton Park, NY 12065
> > will.schroeder at kitware.com
> > http://www.kitware.com
> > (518) 881-4902
> >
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>


-- 
Ken Martin PhD
Chairman & CFO
Kitware Inc.
28 Corporate Drive
Clifton Park NY 12065
518 371 3971

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