[development] How to post bug reports and patches

[David Sterratt]

On Thu, 2008-10-30 at 11:07 -0400, Darren Oh wrote:
> There are four bottlenecks in project maintenance:
> 
> 1. People who complain outnumber people to read complaints.
> 2. People who read complaints outnumber people who provide patches.
> 3. People who provide patches outnumber people who review patches.
> 4. People who review patches outnumber people who commit patches.

A thought about widening bottleneck #3 that requires no technological
innovation: Suppose I've submitted a patch that I'm keen to see reviewed
and committed. Would it be socially acceptable to review two other
patches (preferably related in some way and of a similar level of
complexity) and ask the submitters of those patches to review my patch
in return? 

You scratch my patch, I'll scratch yours.

Although there would be no guarantee of my patch being reviewed by the
other patch submitters, the fact that it might happen would give me more
motivation to review patches.

I'm a "enthusiast" who runs drupal sites in my spare time rather than
doing at as a job. I've contributed to issues and submitted a few
patches to modules and core, always in response to running into a bug
myself. Although they're all small and fix minor issues, I feel quite
proud of my patches, and am keen to see them grow up, mature and join
the rest of the drupal code. Like an ambitious parent, I'm willing to
put effort into helping my patch-children on in life. I'm guessing that
there may be others who feel similarly.

David (egfrith)