Re: [Caml-list] Doing compiler patch review with a dedicated mailing-list

[Adrien Nader <adrien@notk.org>]

On Sat, Jan 11, 2014, Simon Cruanes wrote:
> Le Sat, 11 Jan 2014, Adrien Nader a écrit :
> > Hi,
> > 
> > (and sorry for the mail sent a few minutes ago :) )
> > 
> > I'd like to know what people think about having a mailing-list for
> > reviews and tests of patches to the compiler and tools around it.
> > 
> > The idea is to do something similar to the kernel mailing-list. I mostly
> > like mantis and it is possible to attach files but it becomes fairly
> > unreadable after a while. The audience is also mostly limited to people
> > who are subscribed to the bug report. I hope this reduces the work and
> > burden of reviewers and especially commiters.
> > 
> > The goal is not to replace patches on mantis and you shouldn't believe
> > this has been blessed by the core development team (nor mentionned to
> > them actually). Instead, I hope this helps do quicker (and smaller?)
> > iteration of patches.
> > 
> > One example where I believe this would be useful is for the
> > cross-compilation patches I've started getting upstreamed around one
> > year ago. There are still many patchs which touch many files and
> > definitely need tests on platforms I don't usually run.
> > 
> > Another case is for patches which touch bits of the compiler almost
> > no-one is familiar with; I think this could help get more input.
> > 
> > Rules would be similar to http://linux.yyz.us/patch-format.html but less
> > strict (that is also mostly something to begin with).
> > In addition, there should be no specific reviewer or set of reviewers
> > for a given component; it is also known, acknowledged and perfectly fine
> > that the available time of reviewers varies. In practice this means you
> > should not refrain from commenting on a patch because someone else
> > usually handles a given topic.
> > 
> > Of course, this requires two things: a bit of infrastructure (I hear
> > it's much easier to create mailing-lists on ocaml.org than on inria's
> > servers), and people (i.e. you). Anyone interested and willing to
> > participate?
> 
> The idea is nice. I don't know the compiler's internals and would
> certainly be interested in being familiar with them. Is a new mailing
> list necessary - do you envision massive traffic on the list - or could
> the current ocaml list, which is usually quite quiet, be used for
> compiler discussions?

I don't think there would be massive traffic but probably some bursts
(especially when there are 10 patches or more in a series) and that
could be annoying to some.

Also, I'd say the caml-list actually has some traffic on it.

> The parallel with the recent suggestion to host wikis on ocaml.org to
> centralize information about how to do parallelism (or other
> similar topics regarding the high-level use of OCaml) may be interesting.
> Would a small-ish wiki about the compiler and compiler's hacking be
> useful? Can a mailing-list play the same role as a wiki?

Well, I don't know compiler internals very well either so it's difficult
for me to say. However having information on how to contribute back (be
it a wiki page or a static page updated through git) would definitely be
useful as there is a growing number of people asking for such infos (at
least on IRC on #ocaml).

-- 
Adrien Nader