Re: [PATCH v1] Configure Git contribution guidelines for github.com

[Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>]

Hi,

Some mostly nitpicky initial thoughts.  Thanks for writing this.

Lars Schneider wrote:

> Many open source projects use github.com for their contribution process.
> Although we mirror the Git core repository to github.com [1] we do not
> use any other github.com service. This is unknown/unexpected to a
> number of (potential) contributors and consequently they create Pull
> Requests against our mirror with their contributions. These Pull
> Requests become stall [2]. This is frustrating to them as they think we
> ignore them and it is also unsatisfactory for us as we miss potential
> code improvements and/or new contributors.

I think this description could be more focused.  It's also not
self-contained --- e.g. the link to stalled pull requests is likely to
become stale over time, especially if GitHub gives us a way to disable
pull requests for the repository some day.

Could you summarize for me the motivation behind this patch?  Is it to
make Git more approachable, to avoid frustrating contributors, etc?

[...]
> I am perfectly aware that adding a ".github" directory in the Git core
> tree is ugly. However, I believe the benefits ("well informed new
> contributors") outweigh the injury.
> 
> You can see how a github.com Pull Request creation window would like here:
> https://github.com/larsxschneider/git/compare/master...larsxschneider-patch-1?quick_pull=1
> 
> I added a link that jumps to a part my GitMerge 2017 talk which explains
> Git core contributions from my point view. Although I tried my best, the
> presentation is not perfect and might not reflect the view of the Git
> community. I wouldn't have a problem at all with removing the link.
> 
> I also did not break the lines in the .github/*.md files as I thought it
> renders nicer on the github.com web interface. I am happy to change that,
> too, though.

This discussion is much clearer to me than the commit message.

I've found that often happens to me when writing patches, too.
Sometimes after proofreading I completely replace the initial
description that I wrote at commit time with what I came up later and
was going to put after the three-dash delimiter.

Would putting a PULL_REQUEST_TEMPLATE and CONTRIBUTING in the
top-level directory work?  If I'm reading
https://help.github.com/articles/setting-guidelines-for-repository-contributors/#adding-a-contributing-file
correctly then it seems to say the ".github/" prefix is optional.

I also find the long source lines hard to read.  Can you say more
about how broken lines render in the github.com web interface?  I
would have expected github's markdown renderer to behave like others
and cope with line wrapping.

Thanks and hope that helps,
Jonathan