Date: Tue, 10 Mar 2020 14:56:25 +0100
From: Natanael Copa <ncopa@alpinelinux.org>
To: "Drew DeVault" <sir@cmpwn.com>
Cc: "Rasmus Thomsen" <oss@cogitri.dev>,
 <~alpine/devel@lists.alpinelinux.org>
Subject: Re: Does it make sense to keep ~alpine/aports running?
Message-ID: <20200310145625.1324546f@ncopa-desktop.copa.dup.pw>
In-Reply-To: <C1371RU6KTBL.2M1PT8PA0ZN98@homura>
References: <24b91bd507e8151d41ac1d9866a4fd7a07febfe0.camel@cogitri.dev>
	<C1371RU6KTBL.2M1PT8PA0ZN98@homura>
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On Thu, 05 Mar 2020 15:46:11 -0500
"Drew DeVault" <sir@cmpwn.com> wrote:

> It takes me almost no time to send a patch to the mailing list, under 5
> seconds every time. It's barely more work to send the patch than it is
> to update a package in the first place. Updating it on GitLab
> comparitively takes 5-10x longer - I have to make a branch, open my web
> browser, log in, push the branch, back to the browser, click a bunch of
> buttons... if the mailing lists are dropped then I'm probably going with
> it as a contributor.

I have sent many patches to different upstream projects, and sending a
single trivial fix upstream using git send-email is by far the easiest
way (unless you are required to subscribe) when you deal with lots of
different upstreams.

However, some time ago sending patches by email was the only way to
contribute to Alpine and I was surprised that so many contributors had
problems sending email. Some of the issues was:

- figuring out how to set up SMTP host
- some email providers (gmail) modifies emails (inserts newlines etc),
  resulting in patch does not applies.
- network policies at workplace that forbids SMTP traffic

Some also sent patches as attachment for some reason.

So while sending patches as emails is the easiest way for you, it
certainly is not the easiest for everyone.

-nc