[plt-dev] Notifications poll (was: repository information)

On Apr 17, Prabhakar Ragde wrote:
> Eli wrote:
> 
> >   I think that it might be a good idea to have the first kind of
> >   messages (the ones with the diffs) posted on this mailing list.
> >   Any objections?  (They have headers that clearly mark them as
> >   originating from git, so it should be easy to ignore them but
> >   not ignore any replies to them -- in case there's comments on
> >   some code.)
> 
> Some of us get plt-dev as a digest. Now, I am eavesdropping to learn
> things, not as an active participant, so I have no right to
> complain, but I can't easily ignore messages in a digest. I'd have
> to unsubscribe.

[Note that the poll below concerns *everyone* on this mailing list.
Please try to reply soon, so the commit emails can get to people who
want them.]

Well, that's sounds like a valid concern in general, but I think that
the purpose of plt-dev is to encourage everything that is related to
development.  What I hope that this will do is three things: (a) Add a
some level of code reiew for new things that get added to the code
base -- which should help in both catching some problems in new code.

(b) It should also help in making people *aware* of such code in the
first place.  For example, if I hadn't been receiving the commit
messages on svn, then the next time I'd do something that is related
to source code I'd write yet again some rough code to print source
information -- but now I know that Carl has put a considerable amount
of work in a library that does just that.  It's more important for
people on plt-dev since being related to the developement means that
you'd generally know much about all kinds of stuff in the code.

(c) Finally, there's a tendency for individuals to get burried in
their own code corners, and I hope for something like this to get
people closer in general -- specifically, avoiding spending resources.
(For example, I could go on with that source location code and decide
that I should make a real library out of it, and only then discover
the existing thing.)


In any case, I'll do a quick poll.  I see the following options:

1. Leave things as they are now: the few people who wanted to get
   notifications will continue getting them, nobody else will.

2. Create a new mailing list for commits, and have all comitters on it
   (as well as anyone else who wants to be on it).  Leave plt-dev
   alone.

3. Send *summary* emails (=> only changed file lists and commit logs,
   no diffs) to plt-dev.  Doing this will require some solution for
   people who want to get the diffs, but don't want to give up being
   on plt-dev -- in this case they'll need to go through the hassle of
   filtering the plt-dev messages out and keep the more detailed
   messages.

4. Send the complete emails to plt-dev -- as I originally suggested.
   This might get a little too verbose a few times (eg, large
   commits), so it might require some adjusting.

5. Any other suggestion?  (If you have a suggestion, then please reply
   on the list, not directly to me.)

-- 
          ((lambda (x) (x x)) (lambda (x) (x x)))          Eli Barzilay:
                    http://barzilay.org/                   Maze is Life!