On 30 Apr 2014 at 5:13, Rob Stewart wrote:
If a maintainer is unresponsive for an extended period, despite contact attempts through the list, private e-mail, and any other means at the community's disposal, then we can declare the library orphaned and assign a new maintainer. Until that time, you're stuck.
So for a one line fix to the failing test(s) we should have to jump all the way to orphaned status and find somebody willing to maintain the entire library for the foreseeable future? Is that a process that seems workable to you?
Honoring the maintainer's ownership is appropriate. We expect more responsiveness than you imply. When that isn't the case, it indicates bigger problems.
It should also be mentioned that being maintainer for a Boost library is a thankless, time consuming, financially unsustainable role with very little reward and an awful lot of grief. The fact anyone does it - let alone volunteers to do it - is surprising. Historically, one of the things granted to those willing to invest the considerable resources in acting as a maintainer is total and absolute control and discretion in all matters relating to maintaining that library. I think that is one of the few good reasons people volunteer to maintain - they get to enact their personal vision for a library. And that definitely means giving pause to "simple" bug fixes. As a quick example of why pondering and delaying applying bug fixes is important, I recently ripped out over 120 lines recently added to a major Boost library to fix a bug no one ever had a real problem with but which broke compilation on a major toolset. I replaced that code with 15 lines fixing the non-bug and restoring the ability to compile. The original patch was well intentioned and competently written, but was written more as C than C++ and spammed many source files with #ifdef's when a type with a call operator let the compiler switch implementation for you. It's small stuff like that which is important. I should add, if anyone has a problem with the slow pace of bug fixes being applied in Boost, they can feel absolutely free to volunteer to help a maintainer in general maintainance of a library. I am very sure that few maintainers will turn down high quality help. If you really need some bug fixed, try fixing ten bugs earlier in the submission queue, and I think you'll find that your bug will usually get seen to quicker. Niall -- Currently unemployed and looking for work in Ireland. Work Portfolio: http://careers.stackoverflow.com/nialldouglas/