The problem

Most OCaml development happens through mantis:

• users report bugs, request features, or propose patches
• sometimes a developper works on a PR
• a release each year, with some bugs fixed and some new features

Serious bugs get fixed, features are mostly ignored. Patches sometimes ignored (very bad!).

Problem: we need more people to review patches -- and reject features.

The proposal

Users have been complaining about Mantis. Would using a fancier tool help get more external reviews?

Proposal: we'll accept Github Pull Request for 6 (8?) months.

(Disclaimer: I dislike github.)

Gabriel will do the work of keeping stuff in sync. (hmm...)

What are the results?

Unrelated upward trend

The 4.02 release has more stuff, but it's probably independent of Github.

Positive

New contributions: 18 (probably around 30%)

New reviews: 18 (probably around 100%). Yay!

Github attracted a new crowd -- but isn't this pool limited?

Neutral

Some GPRs (10%) were handled very quickly (small fixes, small changes; small is good).

Developpers meeting help taking decisions. We need more of them.

GPR patches are most effective during initla development: before the feature freeze.

Negative -- to improve

I flunked the mantis reporting -- but it probably doesn't matter much.

Used mostly by "git maintainers", very little by "SVN maintainers" -- related to the above?

To be effective, external users should be told more about the development cycle.

Is this process Gabriel-bound?

Some names

Patches: Nicolas Braud-Santoni, Romain Calabiscetta, Simon Cruanes, Thomas Gazagnaire, Grégoire Henri, Hugo Heuzard, Sergei Lebedev, Evgenii Lepikhin, Gabriel Radanne, Jérôme Vouillon, Yotam Barnoy,
Frédéric Bour, Jacques-Pascal Deplaix,
Peter Zotov

Reviews: Hezekiah Carty, Pierre Chambart, Jacques-Pascal Deplaix, Anil Madhavapeddy, Benedikt Meurer, Christophe Troestler, Jérôme Vouillon, Thomas Refis,
Ben Noordhuis, Jeremy Yallop,
Daniel Bünzli, François Bobot

Thanks!                           (Discussion)