Re: contributing to Emacs

[Konstantin Kharlamov]

On Sun, 2023-06-18 at 13:59 +0300, Eli Zaretskii wrote:
> > From: Konstantin Kharlamov <hi-angel@yandex.ru>
> > Cc: arne_bab@web.de, ams@gnu.org, luangruo@yahoo.com, emacs-devel@gnu.org
> > Date: Sun, 18 Jun 2023 13:44:59 +0300
> > 
> > > > Well, you see, the "sending patches" section has no mention that a
> > > > series is
> > > > unwelcome.
> > > 
> > > They aren't "unwelcome", please don't misquote what I write.
> > 
> > Hmm, I feel like there's some confusion. You said that a single patch is
> > preferred over a series, right?
> 
> "Preferred", yes.  That's a far cry from "unwelcoming" patch series.
> 
> > And then you said it is the reason we don't need
> > to do anything about the problem with sending a series to
> > bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org
> > 
> > But the problem exists, so I'm suggesting that if you don't want it to be
> > fixed,
> > perhaps we should put some docs about that.
> 
> The problem, such as it exists, is mine and of other people who review
> patches.  It isn't the problem of those who _submit_ patches.
> Therefore, there is no need to make the instructions longer on behalf
> of what isn't the contributor's problem.  In the rare case that a
> first-time contributor submits a whole series of patches, he or she
> will be told that we prefer a single patch.  That's all, end of story.
> Most contributors will never even bump into this, because it is rare
> for a casual contributor to submit such complex patches.

Well… Okay.

> > > It sounds like you have just asked us to make that section larger, is
> > > that right?
> > 
> > Yes, but it can still be easier to read than it is now. A few mails above I
> > put
> > a suggestion to separate "how to send a patch" and "what changes should it
> > contain" to different chapters (ideally contained on a single page though).
> > I
> > can rewrite the section and send it here if there's any interest. I didn't
> > get
> > any reply if such change is welcome or not, but I imagine it would simplify
> > the
> > page a lot.
> 
> So when we write text that explains our conventions, it's "too long",
> but when you suggest to add more stuff, that makes it "easier to
> read"?  Doesn't sound consistent to me.

You missed my point. The section "how to submit patches" will become
significantly shorter. Because it will be separated from all the other points
about what a patch should contain.