[mythtv] Schema updates

Michael T. Dean mtdean at thirdcontact.com
Sun Mar 4 13:42:48 UTC 2007


On 03/04/2007 03:52 AM, f-myth-users at media.mit.edu wrote:
> I -am- trying to do something about the situation.  Step 1 is making
> sure that -any- attempt to fix it will be allowed!  (Step 2 is finding
> out whether my ideas on -how- to fix it make sense before a single
> line of code gets written---no matter who writes it.  Or are you of
> the opinion that the design should come -after- the code gets
> written?)
>
> OTOH, unless Isaac is willing to have the patch committed, people are
> just wasting their time making patches at all---much less, in my case,
> building isolated test setups to even be -able- to make the patches.
> And his reply tonight seems to indicate just that.  Perhaps I
> misunderstood him; we'll see if he clarifies.
>
> And finally, there are certainly cases when someone suggested a
> feature, and someone else implemented it.  Witness cpinkham's recent
> delayed-user-jobs commit.  But it's obvious that there's some
> controversy over actually keeping users from accidentally screwing
> themselves, so saying "go make a patch" is premature at best.

Refusing to make a patch unless someone has already promised to commit 
that change (sight unseen) is completely and totally the wrong approach 
to take and goes against everything that Free and Open Source Software 
stands for.

If you have a need for a change to free software, make that change.  
Then, as the software license may require or just to try to help people, 
submit that patch upstream for /consideration/.  If that change is 
applied to upstream code, you've helped others out /and/ you no longer 
have to apply the patch to your own tree.

If, on the other hand, the patch is not committed (and is 
unconditionally refused), just continue to apply the patch to your own 
tree.  If the patch is not committed but the developers suggest changes 
to be made before they will commit it, then make those changes.

After all, that's what "free" really means (despite what a large number 
of FOSS users tend to think).

Mike


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