Re: Lessons from commit fest

On Tue, 15 Apr 2008 12:12:24 -0400
Alvaro Herrera <alvherre(at)commandprompt(dot)com> wrote:

> Tom Lane wrote:
>
> > I tend to just fix this stuff while committing, rather than lecture
> > the submitters about it, but it undoubtedly is a time sink.
>
> Lesson learned: a useful task for another reviewer to do is to grab
> the patch, fix the style issues, and post the fixed version. That
> way, the "higher level reviewer" does not have to waste time on a
> task that, really, anybody can do.

This reminds me of parenting. As a parent you have a tendency to do
things for your children, long past the time you should. Maybe it is
that you cut their food so they don't have to use a knife or that you
wash their face with their sleeve as they walk out the door. At some
point you have to let go otherwise the child will never learn to take
care of themselves and will end up living in your basement, unemployed
and yelling up the stairs for bagel bytes.

The idea that we "fix" stylistic issues on the fly is not sustainable.
We should offer help and mentorship to new patch submitters in all
areas (including stylistic) but they should do the work. It is the only
way we will mold them to submit patches in the proper way.

Sincerely,

Joshua D. Drake

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