Re: operator exclusion constraints

On Sun, 2009-09-27 at 22:40 -0400, Robert Haas wrote:
> Apparently, CommitFest
> no longer means a time when people put aside their own patches to
> review those of others; it seems now to mean a time when 87% of the
> patch authors either continue development or ignore the CommitFest
> completely.

Well, I'm not completely innocent here, either. I also spent time making
progress on my patch, both in terms of code and discussion so that I
would at least have enough information to get it ready during the next
development cycle.

We don't have a clear "design review" stage that allows developers an
opportunity to get thorough feedback during the development cycle, so
the commitfest is also the design review stage by default. I got some
comments when I posted my design on 8/16, but it didn't really get
hashed out until a month later when the commitfest was underway.

The ideal is to propose, design, implement, and then submit for the
commitfest. The reality is that the commitfest is often the first time
the developer gets thorough feedback on the design. So, as a developer,
I'm hesitant to polish a patch before the commitfest because I know
significant changes will be required. Hopefully that didn't waste too
much of Brendan's time.

That's just an observation from my experience with my patch. I know it's
easy to point at little inefficiencies from afar, so I'm not suggesting
we change our process. Overall, real progress is being made for the
project in general and my patch in particular, so I'm more than willing
to set my minor frustrations aside as long as that continues.

Regards,
Jeff Davis