Re: [Chicken-hackers] CR #1142 and upcoming changes

[Peter Bex]

On Tue, Aug 19, 2014 at 05:21:06PM +0200, Felix Winkelmann wrote:
> Mostly cleaning up. Shrinking the core system will make maintenance
> easier, and reduces the need to follow our usual patch-review process.

I fully agree that the patch review process would be untenable for
the kind of massive large-scale overhaul we're planning on, but I
also am a little afraid we'll lose the benefits it brings.

I liked the fact that we spread knowledge through the patch review
process: I really think we have started to make some progress towards
getting more people up to speed about various parts of core.  At least,
I know more about the GC and the expander, and Evan knows more about
the scrutinizer.

If we completely change everything without going through the list that
means we might get lots of new bugs (which we will anyway, I don't make
any illusions about that, but it will be less bad if we have someone review
the stuff), and nobody but the person who wrote the code will know how
it works.  Finally, by reviewing, we'll get useful feedback on alternative
approaches to a particular problem (and typical bikesheds, of course.
But in this process, we have the freedom to ignore anyone who doesn't
submit patches).

Cheers,
Peter
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