Re: [Ksummit-discuss] [CORE TOPIC] Recruitment (Reviewers, Testers, Maintainers, Hobbyists)

[Darren Hart <dvhart@infradead.org>]

On Sat, Jul 11, 2015 at 12:37:28AM +0100, David Woodhouse wrote:
> On Fri, 2015-07-10 at 16:09 -0700, Darren Hart wrote:
> > This simple tool should not run on the client IMO. Or should be *required* to
> > run on the client. The kernel.org patch submission web form would be usable by
> > anyone with a browser ... OK, go ahead... "anyone with a browser" is too low a
> > bar for a kernel developer.... :-)
> > 
> > But seriously, we're talking about recruitment, and this is the kind of tooling
> > I routinely here non-Linux developers shake their heads at when considering our
> > development process. So while you and I are fine using vi (*jab*) and mutt
> > (*evolution) and arcane bash (*posix shell*) scripts and local MTAs... others
> > would very much like to focus on the code they are changing, and let the
> > computers handle schlepping the changesets around. Especially when they only
> > have a couple of patches to send, the setup is significant barrier.
> 
> Can you really do kernel development without touching a command line?

Of course not :-) But that's not the same thing as having to setup up a lot of
very custom special purpose tooling that you don't need for anything else just
to share a patch.

> 
> Perhaps we need a graphical tool based on gitk in which you can select
> a set of commits, edit a cover letter and (initially autogenerated) set
> of recipients, and then it'll send them for you?

That's not a bad idea, basic git usage is a requirement for kernel development.
It still depends on a successful gitk client installation, a local SMTP
configuration, possible firewall setup, etc. And I confess to be selfish in this
regard, I'm tired of helping people set that all up! That's why I like the web
submission form. Web connectivity is ubiquitous, no additonal setup is required
beyond an initial email verification through the same web service. A lot of
people outside the core developers do development through ssh to a managed Linux
machine, and are not running a Linux Desktop environment.

After some successful submissions through this, people will migrate to something
more advanced if they are to continue with kernel development, and something
like gitk integration isn't a bad idea as it can easily be preconfigured to do
all the right things with email mechanics that are becoming increasingly
difficult to configure modern GUI clients for (and most people are using a
modern GUI client for everything except Linux development these days).

-- 
Darren Hart
Intel Open Source Technology Center