Re: TODO list (was Re: Contributing with code)

On Tue, Jan 2, 2018 at 3:42 PM, Joshua D. Drake <jd(at)commandprompt(dot)com> wrote:
> On 01/02/2018 11:17 AM, Robert Haas wrote:
>>
>> On Sun, Dec 31, 2017 at 2:31 PM, Peter Geoghegan <pg(at)bowt(dot)ie> wrote:
>>>
>>> On Sun, Dec 31, 2017 at 10:42 AM, Tom Lane <tgl(at)sss(dot)pgh(dot)pa(dot)us> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> If we're not going to maintain/curate it properly, I agree it's not
>>>> worth keeping it around. But I'd rather see somebody put some effort
>>>> into it ...
>>>
>>> If somebody was going to resolve to put some effort into maintaining
>>> it to a high standard then it probably would have happened already.
>>> The fact that it hasn't happened tells us plenty.
>>
>> +1, and well said.
>
>
> O.k. what does it tell us though? Is it a resource issue? Is it a barrier of
> entry issue? What does deleting it solve? What problems (and there is a very
> large obvious one) are caused by deleting it?
>
> Right now, the TODO list is the "only" portal to "potential" things we
> "might" want. If we delete it we are just creating yet another barrier of
> entry to potential contribution. I think we need to consider an alternative
> solution because of that.
>
> Thanks,
>
> JD
>
>
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>
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>
>

As a person looking to become a postgres contributor, perhaps I can
offer some perspective on this. I think there is value in providing
*some* starting point for new contributors in the form of concrete
problems to solve. The value I hope to extract from the time spent on
my first feature comes mostly from the learning experience and not
from the acceptance of the feature itself. I would not be upset if my
work was never accepted as long as I understand why. I expect most
people picking features at random from a TODO list would have a
similar outlook on their first contribution.