[dsdp-pmc] Process for Code Contributions / Feature Additions

["Oberhuber, Martin" <Martin.Oberhuber@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear PMC & EMO,

After we had some confusion over what was needed in order to accept
a new code contribution into our project repositories (single PMC
member approval, or vote among the PMC), Doug Gaff asked me to 
check and inform you. So here's what I found.

* The standard toplevel project charter (which also applies for dsdp)
says:
 
http://www.eclipse.org/projects/dev_process/Eclipse_Standard_TopLevel_Ch
arter_v1.0.php
  "The Development Projecess"
  "[...] The Committers of a Project or component decide which changes
may
   be committed to the master code base of a Project or component
respectively.
   The PMC defines the decision process, but that process must include
the
   ability for Committers to veto the change. [...] Common decision
processes
   include: 
   * Retroactive - changes are proactively made by Committers but can be

   vetoed by a single Committer.
   * Proactive [...]
   * Thre Positive [...]"

It looks like this mostly applies to code changes done by committers, 
and it looks like most of us are using this first (retroactive) option,
i.e. let committers just do their work and veto it later if they should
not like it. Would you agree that this should be our process?

* The Contribution Questionnaire says:
  http://www.eclipse.org/legal/ContributionQuestionnairePart1-v1.0.php
  "[...] for any significant contribution of content to be committed to 
  an Eclipse project. Prior to completing this Questionnaire, the
Committer
  should have technical agreement from the PMC that the new code is
required.
  [...] please provide the contact info of the PMC member who has given 
  approval for this contribution"

So the question is what "The PMC" means in this context. The form seems
to imply that a single member's approval is sufficient. For TM, we've 
had to go through this process for 3 contributions now, with more to 
follow since IBM has more code to contribute that was written before 
joining the TM project and has not been put into the initial
contribution.
Would you agree that a single PMC member's approval is sufficient?

* The Committer Guidelines also say:
  http://www.eclipse.org/legal/committerguidelines.php
  "All content submitted through any channel other than the Eclipse
  Foundation website must be approved by the PMC, and submitted to
  the EMO, via the Contribution Questionnaire, for due diligence
approval,
  prior to being committed to the CVS repository. [...] The analysis 
  performed by the PMC is usually one of a purely technical nature."

Again, it is not clear whether "the PMC" is a single PMC member or
a vote among all PMC members.

My personal feeling is, that a single PMC member's approval should
be sufficient in order to keep the process smooth -- in most cases,
it's only one of the PMC members who has sufficient technical insight
into the particular area of contribution anyways.

Comments? 
Thoughts?

Thanks,
Martin

--
---------------------------------/()\-----------------------------------
Dipl.-Ing. Martin Oberhuber        mailto:martin.oberhuber@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Member of Technical Staff          Phone  (UTC +1h): +43 (662) 457915-85
Wind River Systems (Salzburg) GmbH              Fax: +43 (662) 457915-6
Jakob-Haringer-Str.8, A-5020 Salzburg, Austria  http://www.windriver.com
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