On 11/21/2011 09:41 PM, Rob Lanphier wrote:
On Mon, Nov 21, 2011 at 3:52 PM, Brion Vibber brion@pobox.com wrote:
...
In the meantime we've got no upcoming 1.19 deployment pressure and nobody assigned to ongoing code review, so there's nothing to compel further action -- it's not surprising to me at all that it's falling behind.
Brion and I spoke in real life right after this, which is highly unfair to the rest of you, but it was really efficient for us. Here's the gist:
- I've already started a campaign to remind people of the 20% policy
(http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/20_percent )
- I'll also be sending out a revised target date for 1.19, based on
looking at the updated numbers and how quickly we reviewed in some of our more determined review sprints, figuring in some time for a little regression during the holidays.
- More people from Platform Engineering will be reinforcing that we
want the next release to happen soon, even if that means other things (e.g. Git migration) lag as a result.
Not a perfect answer, but I think we're improving with each release. This time around, one key difference will be clearing the review backlog before branching, which, with any luck, means less backporting hell.
Rob
Also, this year we've worked on other foundational support for training new code reviewers and encouraging developers to review code for the first time. In July and August we had two code review trainings. Guillaume and I are turning the artifacts from those trainings into improvements to the code review guidelines and educational materials on mediawiki.org -- see https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Volunteer_coordination_and_outreach/Training_... .
In the long run, I'd love to see a far greater proportion of MediaWiki's developers reviewing code (somewhat closer to the Launchpad model https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Sumanah/Launchpad-dev-process), which requires training.
So: If you are a MediaWiki developer, and you would like to be reviewing more code but aren't sure of your abilities, try coming into IRC when a more senior developer is there, per the chart at https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Development_process_improvement/20%25_policy#... , and suggest that you review a revision and then have your review metareviewed by him or her. Doing is the best way to learn.