[etherlab-dev] Community contribution

[Esben Haabendal]

Hi Florian

Thanks for joining this discussion :)

Florian Pose <fp at igh.de> writes:

> Hello all,
>
> On Fri, Mar 02, 2018 at 10:58:54AM +0100, Esben Haabendal wrote:
>> > Do main contributors (Florian Pose, Philipp Weyer, Gavin ...) have an
>> > opinion on that ?
>> 
>> I really hope they do, and hope they will participate in the discussion
>> here.
>
> sure we have. ;-)
>
> The goal must be to maintain one source that as-many-as-possible users
> can live with. I understand that the current situation (with different
> versions of patchsets) is not satisfactory.
>
> From the IgH point-of-view we have the stable-1.5 branch that we see as
> matured software and that we use heavily in our everyday projects. This
> branch nearly contains everything *we* need (except for some native
> drivers that are more up-to-date).
>
> The other side is (and this is what was the goal from beginning) that
> the master (and moreover all other software within the EtherLab project)
> should be useful for others, which is certainly is, but one can see from
> the discussions and the patches, that it does not fit everyone's needs.

True.  While I am sure we can and should work on this, it might not
always be possible to fit everyone's needs exactly.  Compromises might
be needed, or given enough discussions, we can hopefully find a path
when such problems arise.

> The reason that I do not just pull the whole patchset in the default
> branch (for example) is that I'm not hundred percent convinced of every
> single patch (or at least I do not understand why it is necessary),
> others I don't like because they break compatibility.

Sounds fair.  It might not be the best idea to pull in the whole
patchset as it is.  But we should strive to merge enough changes, so
that such out-of-tree patchsets are not needed anymore.

Let's start to work on that :)

> There is an idea in my mind that came up some time ago, and I think it
> would make sense right now: What do you guys think about some kind of
> EtherCAT conference? We should bring developers (physically) together
> taking two or three days of time to discuss patches and opinions, make
> plans for the future and work on integrating the patches. I'm thinking
> of a group of a handful developers (maybe Gavin, Graeme, Esben, ... )
> that are deeply involved.

Great idea!  We have been thinking about the exact same thing for some
time now here at DEIF.  We definitely would like to participate in
something that.

> Naturally I would propose the IgH headquarters in Essen, Germany to be
> the location. I don't know how hard it is for you to get here, or it is
> even possible.

That should be possible.

> What I could also imagine, is some people here and some by video
> conference, but I like the thought of meeting physically.

I would strongly prefer a physical meeting.

> What do you think about it?

Let's do it.

/Esben