Re: Considerations on a gitlab-style forge

[Claudio Bantaloukas <Claudio.Bantaloukas@arm.com>]

On 11/04/2024 23:23, Frank Ch. Eigler wrote:
> Hi -
>
>> Thank you for answering, I've been trying to come up with a high level
>> reason why something about those forges is desirable to people like me
>> and the best I could come up with is this.
>>
>> Having a single place where a developer can see:
>> [...]
>> - any code review comments their fellow developers may have
>
> Yeah, that seems to be the main benefit, easier than email threads.

Trying to be the devil's advocate, I would argue that a lot of
developers prefer email threads, so, if taken on its own, that's not a
compelling argument that is likely to reach consensus.
Which is why I'm making the argument that all of the things I mentioned
must be in one place, with adequate ways of searching for required
information.

>> - whether these changes are likely to break things for others
>
> That's hard to know unless you share code & inter-merge, which is not
> automatic in web-forge type systems, and can be done via personal or
> development branches in the current system too.

Indeed, making a useful CI system is about as hard as making a useful
suite of tests. It's hard, but not impossible.

For an example of a not too bad system, see this merge request in the
cmake project: https://gitlab.kitware.com/cmake/cmake/-/merge_requests/7400
There's sanity check automation that runs on all changes and a bot,
invoked by vetted people, that allows running expensive checks.

A similar example on a Libre forge (minus the bot):
https://codeberg.org/forgejo/forgejo/pulls/3156

>> - what others are working on
>
> (You cannot know that. :-)

Indeed browsing gcc-patches is not for the faint of heart! I meant being
able to see other people's open merge requests, something that I've
found valuable in the past.

Cheers,
Claudio
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