On Tue, May 10, 2011 at 1:46 PM, Heikki Linnakangas
<heikki.linnakangas@enterprisedb.com> wrote:
On 10.05.2011 04:43, Greg Smith wrote:
Josh Berkus wrote:
As I don't think we can change this, I think the best answer is to
tell people
"Don't submit a big patch to PostgreSQL until you've done a few small
patches first. You'll regret it".
When I last did a talk about getting started writing patches, I had a
few people ask me afterwards if I'd ever run into problems with having
patch submissions rejected. I said I hadn't. When asked what my secret
was, I told them my first serious submission modified exactly one line
of code[1]. And *that* I had to defend in regards to its performance
impact.[2]
Anyway, I think the intro message should be "Don't submit a big patch to
PostgreSQL until you've done a small patch and some patch review"
instead though.
Yeah, probably same for me, though I got a lot of support from existing hackers during my first submission. But it was a tiring experience for sure. I would submit a patch and then wait anxiously for any comments. I used to get a lot of interesting and valuable comments, but would know that unless one of the very few (Tom ?) members say something, good or bad, it won't go anywhere and those comments did not come in the early days/months. I was an unknown name and what I was trying to do was very invasive. So when I look back now, I can understand the reluctance on other members to get excited about the work. Most often they would see something in the design or the patch which is completely stupid and they would loose all interest at the very moment.
Since I had backing of EnterpriseDB and it was my paid job, it was much easier to keep the enthusiasm, but I wouldn't be surprised if few others would have turned their back to the project forever.
Fortunately, things have changed for better now. I think the entire commit fest business is good. Also, we now have a lot more hackers with expertise in different areas and with influential opinions. Its very likely that if you submit an idea or a patch, you would get some comment/suggestion/criticism very early.
Since HOT is mentioned often in these discussions, I thought I should share my experience.
Thanks,
Pavan
