[SDL] Feature of SDL

[Jared Maddox]

> Date: Thu, 24 May 2012 15:00:32 -0400
> From: Alex Barry <alex.barry at gmail.com>
> To: SDL Development List <sdl at lists.libsdl.org>
> Subject: Re: [SDL] Feature of SDL
> Message-ID:
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>
> I think the problem in question is "how do we get community patches into
> SDL, and what process needs to take place?"
>
> We have a pile of patches that are "in the backlogs" with no one with the
> time or repo access to push them ahead.
>
> Here is what I propose for a process:
>
>
>    1. A patch must contain: a test case (demonstrates where SDL is broken
>    or could be sped up, or whatever), the patch *.diff file (that's how
> we're
>    doing patches, right?), and what OS the problem is reported on.
>    2. We have some sort of list where people apply with their current
>    system specs, and their level of expertise
>    3. After a patch is submitted, people with the appropriate expertise do
>    a code review, make sure it's going to do the fix and not make another
> hole
>    in SDL (this may be hard to manage from a community stand point).
>    4. A patch gets submitted, people who have a system where the problem
>    can be detected get notified to test it.
>    5. Wait until at least 3 unique people test and confirm the patch is
>    good.
>    6. Pull request into main repo.
>
> It would require some work, but then it's based on people's ability to
> contribute, and I think it's efficient enough that we can get things moving
> fairly quickly.  We may need Sam to add some sort of developer zone to the
> website, but if we can get something like this up, I think the whole
> community would benefit.
>
> I know it sounds a little complicated, and maybe we can hone these ideas
> down to something a little more user-friendly.
>
> Thoughts?
> -Alex
>

What about a mob branch: does Mercurial support them (Google didn't
provide a quick answer), would one be useful for speeding up
development? I'm certain that your outline would work with a core team
(which could probably be rounded up from the list), but I'm not
convinced it would work with a more vaguely defined community (too
concretely organized).