Hi all, looks like the WWDC has been a nice success, but it is over now and all devs are back to normal mode. I have written up a very subjective blog post here <http://heisenbug.blogspot.com/2010/06/my-grief-with-out-of-tree-code.html> in which I ask for clarifications to the development policy wrt. backing out of buildbot-proven patches because of (unintended) breakage in external projects. It mostly amounts to how devs can cooperate to advance the fundamental status quo regarding code quality in the framework (i.e. the LLVM libs) and its clients (e.g. Apple's OpenGL stack). As you see this is a somewhat nagging need in me and I would love to converge towards a satisfying solution. Cheers, Gabor
On Jun 15, 2010, at 7:12 AM, Gabor Greif wrote:> Hi all, > > looks like the WWDC has been a nice success, but > it is over now and all devs are back to normal mode. > > I have written up a very subjective blog post here > > <http://heisenbug.blogspot.com/2010/06/my-grief-with-out-of-tree-code.html> > > in which I ask for clarifications to the development > policy wrt. backing out of buildbot-proven patches > because of (unintended) breakage in external projects. > > It mostly amounts to how devs can cooperate to advance > the fundamental status quo regarding code quality in the > framework (i.e. the LLVM libs) and its clients (e.g. > Apple's OpenGL stack). > > As you see this is a somewhat nagging need in me and > I would love to converge towards a satisfying solution.Hi Gabor, I saw your post and completely agree with you. Your patch should go in based on its own merits, if there is out of tree code that breaks, it isn't your fault or problem. -Chris
Hi Gabor, if a change you make breaks an out-of-tree project, then I reckon the least that project can do is supply you with a testcase, or if that's not possible at least interact with you to track down the source of the problem. In the case of dragonegg this has happened a few times, for example one of Evan's dagcombine changes broke the d-e bootstrap. IIRC, I reverted his initial patch, which he later reapplied with some fixes, which eventually was reverted again, reapplied with more fixes and so on - this went on for some time while I worked on reducing a manageable testcase. I forget how it ended, but the point I would like to make is that it all happened amicably, with both Evan and I clearly interested in finding the root of the problem. When this is the case, it probably doesn't matter much whether patches are backed out or not, since progress is being made. Ciao, Duncan.