Re: Unmaintained packages - becoming a maintainer?

[Carnë Draug]

On 12 May 2015 at 10:59,  <address@hidden> wrote:
>> On 9 May 2015 at 07:05,  <address@hidden> wrote:
>>> Hi guys,
>>>
>>> If I wanted to become a maintainer of one or more of the currently
>>> unmaintained packages, which would be the most useful ones to pick up?
>>
>> "Most useful" will be user dependent.  If you want to become a package
>> maintainer you should pick one that you care about.  One that you use
>> regularly and whose content and subject you are familiar with.
>
> I don't really care about any of them at the moment, I'm in a situation
> where I have some software development/test/release skill and a few hours
> each week to try to do something useful with.
>
>> If you wish to become a package maintainer, pick something that you enjoy
>> doing.  You will need to submit several patches, and these need to be
>> reviewed by others, before you get push access and the ability to prepare
>> package releases.
>
> Patches for the package(s) I'm proposing to take over? Or patches for
> other things? The best bet for other things would be for me to add some
> tests for currently untested functions.

Patches for anything really.  Yes, adding tests for some functions is easy.
Specially if you do it for functions that have a Matlab equivalent since
makes it easier for devs to make sure your tests are correct.  Otherwise,
reviewers of the patch must also known about the maths behind the function
and the range of subjects is too wide.

If you just want to be useful, picking something that is already maintained
will be better.  Just because there's a maintainer for a package doesn't
mean that it doesn't need more people.  And it means that you'll get feedback,
and things move faster.  If you want, later you can still start working on
an unmaintained package, but with better knowledge of how things work.

Carnë