Facts we can draw from the paper: 1) The Maintainer is too busy with other work to 'maintain/expand' codebase. 2) 'J' is very anxious about advancing code (and appears to need some dog training). 3) A Maintainer's job is to maintain and expand codebase, generally leading from the front edge, not the trailing edge. 4) By his own admissions, the Maintainer appears to be failing.
Given these circumstances, what should have happened is Mr. J should have asked to add his code to v2, working with the Maintainer. Then after gaining some trust from the Maintainer and the users, ask to become the defacto maintainer for v2 (Maintainer should suggested it). It seems like too much personality gained a foothold in the codebase.
Perhaps if the Maintainer and J would agree on each other's mailing lists to jettison the personal baggage, work together on v2.1 (merging v2.0 and v1.2j), the codebase could move smoothly forward again.
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Facts we can draw from the paper:
1) The Maintainer is too busy with other work to 'maintain/expand' codebase.
2) 'J' is very anxious about advancing code (and appears to need some dog training).
3) A Maintainer's job is to maintain and expand codebase, generally leading from the
front edge, not the trailing edge.
4) By his own admissions, the Maintainer appears to be failing.
Given these circumstances, what should have happened is Mr. J should have asked to
add his code to v2, working with the Maintainer. Then after gaining some trust from
the Maintainer and the users, ask to become the defacto maintainer for v2 (Maintainer
should suggested it). It seems like too much personality gained a foothold in the
codebase.
Perhaps if the Maintainer and J would agree on each other's mailing lists to jettison
the personal baggage, work together on v2.1 (merging v2.0 and v1.2j), the codebase could move smoothly forward again.
Steven Howe
Steven.Howe@ElSegundoCA.NCR.COM