[vlc-devel] [PATCH] patches applied to VLC

[Rafaël Carré]

I CC the mailing list again, there's nothing confidential or personal in
this mail and I want to keep it as a public reference.
Did you notice I consider history is important ? :-)

Le Wed, 16 Nov 2011 10:38:44 +0800,
Ross Finlayson <finlayson at live555.com> a écrit :

> > > I explain clearly in our FAQ why I don't put the LIVE555 code under a version control system.  

> > Yes but the explanations are so wrong that you appear outrageous:

> > > "because old versions of the code are not supported"  

> > We don't support old versions of the code either, yet we use version control.

> > > might also encourage developers to extend the source code by modifying it 'in place'
> > > As noted above, modifying the supplied code 'in place' is something that we discourage; instead,
> > > developers should use C++ subclassing to extend the code.  

> > With or without your consent or encouragment people like us are already
> > modifying live555 in place, to make your code better, so this just
> > doesn't hold.
> > And not only for extending or subclassing; we in VLC just want to fix
> > what is broken.
> > If you make their/our lives harder by not providing a VCS what do you
> > expect that we do with our/their patches?

> > You give the feeling that you want to protect live555 from outsiders to
> > keep it in control.
> > Are you that much afraid of contributions?

> > > (And I don't use one myself;  

> > Perhaps you should try, you have nothing to lose and you might enjoy it!

> > > most of the time, I use/need just two commands: "emacs" and "make" :-)  

> > Well me too, like any UNIX developer I guess.


The above part of the mail was trimmed. Why no comments on your refusal
for a VCS?
I took it in private in case you'd feel ashamed discussing it on a
public ML.

If you don't want to answer because you were asked this too much,
please put the details in your FAQ.

And I think you should be ashamed to not opening history of a so-called
"open source" project.

> > Are you that much afraid of contributions?
> Not at all.  Just the opposite, in fact - I encourage people to send patches to me.

I must say this mail exchange doesn't encourage me at all.
I started this thread only because I didn't understand why other VLC
developers were so unhappy about you. Now I do.

I am deceived because your practices look like closed source
development model.

> But noone needs a version control system for this.  Just run "diff".

But you don't need us to send patches to live mailing list. Just look at
them in our "git repository".

That you don't understand why so much people want a VCS that's strange,
but I accept it.

That you don't want to provide a VCS with proper history, while giving
false excuses about it in your FAQ, I don't accept it.
I just can't think of a non-selfish excuse for not wanting to open the
history.

-- 
Rafaël Carré