[development] taking a break

[Dries Buytaert]

Karoly,

On 30 Jun 2007, at 19:56, Karoly Negyesi wrote:
> Then I was not communicating clearly enough. I thought starting  
> with a quote from the Animal Farm will be clear enough but it was  
> obviously not: I am deeply disappointed with the fact of the  
> commits and non commits. I am not pointing at John, if anyone, then  
> my finger points to Dries for making an exception here. Or to the  
> reviewers for not catching the many code style errors. Or I am just  
> frustrated with deletion API and what I perceive as unfairness with  
> the book patch. Or I just might be sleep deprived. Pick whatever.

While I try to listen to all input, Drupal has never been a  
democracy.  I try my best to resolve conflicts, to listen, to be  
fair, and to balance all the concerns and the input I get.  But at  
the end of the day, it's my job to decide what patches should go into  
core and what patches shouldn't go into core. By design, it is  
impossible to please everyone or to be 100% fair.  I hope this  
doesn't come as a surprise to you.

Furthermore, it is impossible for me to review every single patch  
every time it was updated.  This means I'm forced to prioritize my  
own code reviews, just like you or anyone else prioritizes yours.  I  
focus my time on patches (i) that people tell me are important or  
(ii) that align well with my vision for Drupal.

Anyway, if everyone prioritizes his or her code reviews, patches that  
people care about, tend to get many reviews/helpers.  Patches that  
people don't really care about are sometimes forgotten or neglected.   
This isn't necessarily a bad thing, although it can be frustrated for  
those who are extremely passionate about his or her patch.

Granted, sometimes important patches are neglected because they have  
a high barrier to entry.  This is highly unfortunate and I try to  
deal with those as time permits.  I try to review a lot of these  
patches.  Anyway, we're currently nearing the code freeze, and people  
tend to forget about all other patches except their own.  These are  
inherently crazy times.  I don't know why, but sometimes people think  
of the code freeze as the end of the world, and their patch being the  
magic hero that comes in to save the world just in time.  Of course,  
it is nothing like that, and there is nothing wrong with patches  
being postponed.

Maybe the code freeze frenzy blinds you too?  Consider to take a  
fresh perspective on why the actions module went in and why the book  
module improvements haven't yet.  I'll share you my perspective ...

I agree with parts of the book patch, and I disagree with other parts  
of the book patch.  Regardless my disagreements, I don't think the  
book patch is super-high priority.  Frankly, there is no harm done  
when the book improvements don't make it into Drupal 6.  Now contrast  
this with the actions module.  Personally, I think the actions module  
is a "true enabler".  It allows modules to interoperate in new ways,  
and it instantly gives us many great new features.  Getting the  
actions module into Drupal 6 is important as it is something we want  
to start building on as soon as possible.  I spent 3+ hours reviewing  
the actions module and I think the underlying design is sound; I'm  
confident that outstanding problems can be fixed easily.  Lastly, the  
delete API is also more important than the book patch so that's why I  
spent most of today pondering about the delete API.  I care a lot  
about what the delete API tries to accomplish, and that's why I think  
it is so important to do it right, and why I'm not happy with a half- 
baked solution.

As always, you're welcome to provide me constructive feedback.  I'm  
sorry to "deeply disappoint" you but maybe you can elaborate more  
about why you are unhappy with the recent "book - actions - delete  
API" events?  What's wrong with my perspective?  Let's talk more  
about it ... :-)

--
Dries Buytaert  ::  http://www.buytaert.net/