[Gnu-arch-users] Re: taglines vs explicit

[Stephen J. Turnbull]

>>>>> "Miles" == Miles Bader <address@hidden> writes:

    Miles> and they usually _do_ get applied without comment after I
    Miles> resend them 3-4 times.

Ah!  Now I see where you're coming from.

I'm not sure where you're going, though.  I still think that what
Linus (and Tom) do requires a skillful human with a spark (or six) of
genuis reading the submissions.  Anything the system can do to make
patch application a one-click affair will help, but even a full-scale
intelligent patch queue manager that

1.  automatically applies the patch, and just as automatically rejects
    it if it doesn't apply
2.  automatically builds, and just as automatically rejects it if the
    build fails
3.  automatically runs the regression test suite, and just as
    automatically rejects if any test fails
4.  provides any relevant human-understandable form (eg, a manpage or
    info file should be compiled and presented in an appropriate viewer)

would provide only a factor of 2 speed up, don't you think, and
probably less for Linus, since I doubt he would do 2 or 3 while he's
waiting, and 1 is presumably a single keystroke.

Actually, when laid out like that, it makes sense for the _client_ to
do all the automatic tests, and for the _server_ (ie, at the
gatekeeper) to just check that the client swears the tests passed.
(That wasn't obvious to me, but seems sensible now.)

-- 
Institute of Policy and Planning Sciences     http://turnbull.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp
University of Tsukuba                    Tennodai 1-1-1 Tsukuba 305-8573 JAPAN
               Ask not how you can "do" free software business;
              ask what your business can "do for" free software.