[Dbix-class] IMPORTANT: A discussion of DBIC governance and future development

Frank Carnovale frank.carnovale at gmail.com
Mon Oct 3 22:02:14 GMT 2016


Thanks for raising this David.

I prefer the "Bazaar" over the "Cathedral".

Cathedrals are fabulously impressive places of important historical
interest, but they become cold and abandoned.  If you need to do day-to-day
business you go to the bazaar, where latest gadgets for every taste can be
found.

I'm the author of DBIx::Class::Schema::Loader::Dynamic.  I hope I won't
have to move that (imho essential) module to some different namespace.




On 3 October 2016 at 21:37, David Golden <xdg at xdg.me> wrote:

> Hello, DBIC community.
>
> I apologize in advance for the length of this email, but I urge everyone
> that uses DBIC to read it fully as it relates to the future of this
> important module.
>
> For those who don't know me, I'm DAGOLDEN on CPAN and I've joined this
> list in my capacity as a PAUSE <http://pause.perl.org> [1] administrator.
>
> For those on the list who aren't familiar with CPAN administration, PAUSE
> is the service that authors use to upload modules to CPAN.  Among other
> functions, it generates the index that maps modules names to downloadable
> tarballs – e.g. "DBIx::Class" to "RIBASUSHI/DBIx-Class-0.082840.tar.gz"
> on a CPAN mirror.
>
> PAUSE also maintains a permissions model
> <http://perladvent.org/2013/2013-12-08.html> [2] for each module
> namespace with two levels: "primary maintainer" (also called "first come")
> and "co-maintainer" (aka "co-maint").  Primary maintainers can grant and
> revoke co-maint permissions.  Both levels can upload tarballs to PAUSE,
> triggering an update to the index.
>
> Over the past several weeks, I've been the PAUSE administrator selected to
> mediate a dispute over future disposition of primary permissions for the
> DBIx::Class namespace.
>
> The dispute was triggered by Peter Rabbitson's "Traffic pattern changes
> ahead"
> <http://lists.scsys.co.uk/pipermail/dbix-class/2016-September/012187.html>
> [3] email to this list on September 6, in which he said:
>
> *I have also firmly selected who will be getting the DBIx::Class *
> *namespace first-come[2], the transfer of which will also happen *
> *somewhere around the end of September.*
>
> Because the identity of the new primary maintainer was neither disclosed
> nor discussed with Matt Trout (the founder of the DBIC project, current
> co-maintainer and also PAUSE administrator) or other co-maintainers,
> several private conversations between ensued between Matt, Peter and others
> about this declaration.
>
> On September 15, Peter notified PAUSE administrators via the
> modules at perl.org mailing list of an "Upcoming PAUSE permissions dispute"
> <http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.modules/2016/09/msg96115.html> [4].
> Separately, Matt notified PAUSE administrators privately with his own
> concerns about a possible dispute (his email was later disclosed and I'll
> link to it later).
>
> On September 21, I privately emailed all DBIC maintainers (CPAN authors
> ABRAXXA, ARODLAND, FREW, ILMARI, JROBINSON, MSTROUT, and RIBASUSHI) on
> behalf of PAUSE administrators with our collective view of how this dispute
> would be best resolved.  Peter asked that any discussion be public, so I
> reposted it to the modules at perl.org mailing list as "Message from PAUSE
> Admins to DBIx::Class maintainers [resend]"
> <http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.modules/2016/09/msg96139.html> [5]
>
> I urge everyone to read that thread in full as well.  For reference, it
> includes a copy
> <http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.modules/2016/10/msg96178.html> [6]
> of Matt's previously private email to PAUSE administrators.
>
> Importantly, the thread summarizes PAUSE administrators' position on the
> dispute, which I repost verbatim here:
>
> *(1) Given the importance of DBIC to the broader Perl community (i.e. way*
> *"upriver" <http://neilb.org/2015/04/20/river-of-cpan.html
> <http://neilb.org/2015/04/20/river-of-cpan.html>>), we’d like to*
> *see a more open discussion between existing maintainers about what
> happens*
> *next in terms of DBIC leadership and control of primary permissions.*
>
> *(2) The best outcome from our perspective would be for a successor to be*
> *decided by consensus of existing maintainers.*
>
> *(3) Given a dispute among maintainers, the only outcome that is
> absolutely*
> *unacceptable to PAUSE admins would be a unilateral permissions transfer*
> *decision.*
>
> *(4) We really hope the DBIC maintainers and/or community can resolve this*
> *internally.*
>
> In the ensuing discussion, Peter disclosed additional details about his
> plans for the future of DBIC in the "Future plans" section of this email
> <http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.modules/2016/10/msg96174.html> [7]:
>
> *I am still planning to wrap up the remaining pieces, including some *
> *unannounced initiatives to get the project into the best shape possible *
> *to survive its leaderlessness.*
>
> *I am still planning to remove all co-maint perms and handover the *
> *first-come to a yet-undisclosed person. Given no clear line of *
> *succession, and the incredibly high stakes wrt compatibility, the only *
> *responsible thing to do is to select a single spot of responsibility and *
> *provide all possible support and infrastructure for a proper *
> *project-freeze.*
>
> In another email
> <http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.modules/2016/10/msg96182.html> [8],
> Peter suggested raising these issues explicitly on the DBIC mailing list:
>
> *As suggested in an earlier email: the PAUSE admins (as the only *
> *legitimate concerned party at this point) would likely benefit having *
> *this question asked in a wider forum ( the DBIC mailing list and/or *
> *other channels ). Essentially someone has to trigger a "vote of no *
> *confidence", otherwise this entire exchange is just a time consuming
> farce.*
>
> On behalf of the PAUSE administrators, we would therefore like to invite
> Peter to describe in more detail his plans for a "project freeze" and the
> role he envisions for a successor maintainer.  We invite Matt, other
> co-maintainers, and the DBIC community at large to add their thoughts about
> the specifics of the plan or about the situation in general.
>
> Given public and private discussions to date, we believe the DBIC
> community should consider questions such as:
>
>
>    - How should the future governance of the DBIC project be decided?
>    - Who should or shouldn't be involved in future governance?
>    - Should the project be "frozen" or should development continue?
>    - If "frozen", what specifically would a "freeze" entail? Would there
>    be exceptions?
>    - If not "frozen", what principles should govern development?  (Cathedral
>    vs Bazaar <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cathedral_and_the_Bazaar>
>    [9] and/or New Jersey Style vs MIT Style
>    <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worse_is_better> [10])
>
> We believe these discussions, if had openly, honestly and constructively,
> will lead to the best resolution of this dispute for the DBIC community.
>
> Thank you for reading this far, and I look forward to reading the
> community's views on these matters.
>
> Sincerely,
> David Golden, PAUSE Administrator
>
> [1] http://pause.perl.org/
> [2] http://perladvent.org/2013/2013-12-08.html
> [3] http://lists.scsys.co.uk/pipermail/dbix-class/2016-September
> /012187.html
> [4] http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.modules/2016/09/msg96115.html
> [5] http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.modules/2016/09/msg96139.html
> [6] http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.modules/2016/10/msg96178.html
> [7] http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.modules/2016/10/msg96174.html
> [8] http://www.nntp.perl.org/group/perl.modules/2016/10/msg96182.html
> [9] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cathedral_and_the_Bazaar
> [10] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Worse_is_better
>
> --
> David Golden <xdg at xdg.me> Twitter/IRC/GitHub: @xdg
>
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