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Wireshark-dev: Re: [Wireshark-dev] Query on status of patches

From: Richard van der Hoff <richardv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 08 Mar 2007 12:55:00 +0000
Douglas Pratley wrote:
I submitted two patches earlier this year:
... Can anybody tell me their current status? That is:

To follow up what Doug has said, I have to say that I've found my recent experiences in getting patches applied less than positive. Anders applied quite a few, but there was one particular patch which I had to ask _four_ times to be reviewed before anything happened. Whilst I understand that everyone is busy, I'd like to give the developer's perspective here and point out that it is incredibly frustrating to spend a few days working on a new feature, polishing a patch and submitting it, only to have it ignored. Nobody is suggesting that you should apply patches without appropriate review - even a reply explaining why the patch can't be reviewed right now would be something. Ultimately you are only going to end up alienating your developer base, which, particularly for a product like Wireshark with its millions of dissectors, would be a disaster.

Might I suggest that what is needed is a change to the procedures for patch submission, review, and application. It seems to me that the current problem is that no individual committer has responsibility for reviewing and applying patches - so they tend to get ignored in the hope that somebody else will have more time. How about if you required patches to be submitted to the Bugzilla, with the responsibility for different parts of the system divided amongst the committers? Then at least everybody could keep track of what's on the todo list, and patches wouldn't get lost in the general noise of the mailing list as I fear they currently do.

Anyway, it's not for me to tell you how to run your project, but I do think it's only fair to point out that if the status quo continues, you are going to end up with a lot of frustrated developers.

Regards,

Richard