From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (qmail 27655 invoked by alias); 23 Apr 2010 19:34:40 -0000 Received: (qmail 27646 invoked by uid 22791); 23 Apr 2010 19:34:39 -0000 X-SWARE-Spam-Status: No, hits=0.8 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_50,T_RP_MATCHES_RCVD X-Spam-Check-By: sourceware.org Received: from mail3.caviumnetworks.com (HELO mail3.caviumnetworks.com) (12.108.191.235) by sourceware.org (qpsmtpd/0.43rc1) with ESMTP; Fri, 23 Apr 2010 19:34:30 +0000 Received: from caexch01.caveonetworks.com (Not Verified[192.168.16.9]) by mail3.caviumnetworks.com with MailMarshal (v6,7,2,8378) id ; Fri, 23 Apr 2010 12:34:43 -0700 Received: from caexch01.caveonetworks.com ([192.168.16.9]) by caexch01.caveonetworks.com with Microsoft SMTPSVC(6.0.3790.3959); Fri, 23 Apr 2010 12:33:59 -0700 Received: from dd1.caveonetworks.com ([12.108.191.236]) by caexch01.caveonetworks.com over TLS secured channel with Microsoft SMTPSVC(6.0.3790.3959); Fri, 23 Apr 2010 12:33:59 -0700 Message-ID: <4BD1F627.2080808@caviumnetworks.com> Date: Fri, 23 Apr 2010 19:40:00 -0000 From: David Daney User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux x86_64; en-US; rv:1.9.1.9) Gecko/20100330 Fedora/3.0.4-1.fc12 Thunderbird/3.0.4 MIME-Version: 1.0 To: gcc@gcc.gnu.org Subject: Re: Why not contribute? (to GCC) References: In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-IsSubscribed: yes Mailing-List: contact gcc-help@gcc.gnu.org; run by ezmlm Precedence: bulk List-Id: List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: Sender: gcc-owner@gcc.gnu.org X-SW-Source: 2010-04/txt/msg00575.txt.bz2 On 04/23/2010 11:39 AM, Manuel López-Ibáñez wrote: > This seems to be the question running around the blogosphere for > several projects. And I would like to ask all people that read this > list but hardly say or do anything. > > What reasons keep you from contributing to GCC? > I am going to answer why I think it is, even though I like to think that I do do something. GCC has high standards, so anybody attempting to make a contribution for the first time will likely be requested to go through several revisions of a patch before it can be accepted. After having spent considerable effort developing a patch, there can be a sense that the merit of a patch is somehow related to the amount of effort expended creating it. Some people don't have a personality well suited to accepting criticism of something into which they have put a lot of effort. The result is that in a small number of cases, people Bad Mouth GCC saying things like: The GCC maintainers are a clique of elitist idiots that refuse to accept good work from outsiders. Personally I don't agree with such a view, and I don't think there is much that can be done about it. There will always be Vocal Discontents, and trying to accommodate all of them would surly be determental to GCC. I think that some potential contributors are discouraged from contributing because they have been frightened away (by the Vocal Discontents mentioned above) before they can get started. David Daney