Stagnating pull requests

[Arnav Gupta]

Since the mail thread about the next release picked on the question of stale pull requests and issues, I would like to draw attention to a sorry state of affairs.

https://github.com/arduino/Arduino/pull/2728
https://github.com/arduino/Arduino/pull/2727
https://github.com/arduino/Arduino/pull/2567
https://github.com/arduino/Arduino/pull/2458
https://github.com/arduino/Arduino/pull/2331
https://github.com/arduino/Arduino/pull/2322

So here are 6 pull requests, by me, doing the exact same thing - that is adding the option to save the compiled hex/bin. When I wrote a mail to this list, people seemed enthusiastic about this feature. So was I.

Now 6 iterations of refactors, branch shifting, github comments, emails later, I can definitely say, I am not all that enthusiastic anymore about it, and want to give really few shits to whether it ever gets merged or not.

The point here, is not me batting for my own pull requests, but for hundreds of others that languish exactly the same way in the doldrums of the github repo, with too few responses, if any, from the Arduino team. As an open hardware and open software platform, I must say this, is a sorry state of affairs.

=======================================
  Arnav Gupta (championswimmer)        
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[Mattias Schlenker]

Hi Arnav,

Recently the command line version got the switch --preserve-temp-files. Together with the option build.path the compiled hex file can easily be obtained. This is for CLI only, but I guess for most of us this does the trick.

Yours,

Mattias

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[Eberhard Fahle]

Arnav Gupta wrote:
> Since the mail thread about the next release picked on the question of
> stale pull requests and issues, I would like to draw attention to a
> sorry state of affairs.

> ....

> The point here, is not me batting for my own pull requests, but for
> hundreds of others that languish exactly the same way in the doldrums of
> the github repo, with too few responses, if any, from the Arduino team.

Trying to contribute to the arduino code is a frustrating experience.

You never know if you are just being ignored, or if the team doesn't
have the manpower to go through the issues and pull requests.

Here a little story what happend to me:

I filed this issue in November last year
https://github.com/arduino/Arduino/issues/2419

and delivered a pull request that fixes too and then happend *nothing*.

Then y0ou check the issues list from time to time and watch your topic
slowly pass into oblivion. You see other issues to get at least a Label,
and think

It would be polite if someone in charge would at least take one minute
to write: "I read this, I don't have time now but hold on..."

After six weeks you would even be happy for a : "Go away, we don't want
you!"

But you get *nothing*.

After 2 months I had enough, closed the issue and deleted the pull
request. That was the moment when at last someone cared, but I guess
that was just luck. Had I left the issue and pull request untouched they
very likely would still be out there along with the other living dead ....

Its just sad to see this waste of good ideas and volunteer work that
never makes it into the project.

Today I read the arduino blog entry on the new webbased ide
http://blog.arduino.cc/2015/05/05/sneak-peak-arduino-create/

I looked at the images and saw the cloumn with the Filesystem view of
the sketchbook
http://blog.arduino.cc/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/Blogpost_f71.png

I just thought: "We could have had a sidebar like this years ago, if
they would just lets us do it."

The blog post ends with:

"Of course we will continue to develop and improve the desktop Arduino
IDE.."

I'll wait and see

Eberhard



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[Paul Stoffregen]

I also have pull requests stagnating, but really, I pretty much expect
that for anything which isn't a very simple bug fix.

Aside from the build dependency generation, there's also the issue of
scaling graphics and non-editor fonts for 4K and other high-dpi screens.

https://github.com/arduino/Arduino/pull/2776

I guess we haven't reached a critical mass of end users with these
screens, and the Arduino devs mostly use Macintosh, where Apple's
automatic scaling works pretty well and insulates them from the
suffering of Windows and Linux users... but sooner or later, this is
going to be needed.

[bob cousins]

Sorry to say, I am in much the same mind. When I first came to submit a patch for the Due watchdog, not even for my own use but at the request of people on the forum, I thought "yay, I'll be contributing to a great open source project!". Then I realised my humble little patch had a very low priority, there were many other more important and long standing issues on the todo list.

I really would like to help Arduino, but they make it too hard. I wondered what all the devs at Arduino were working on, it seems Arduino Create is one of those things.

With the recent dispute, there seems to have been a spurt of activity, but that has seemed rather a headlong rush in to new features, rather than the less exciting catching up with old PRs. Interaction with Arduino people remains sporadic and inconsistent.

Perhaps Arduino think they don't really need help, and perhaps they are right. For newbies, Arduino is good enough already and the cathedral model is less open, but easier to control.

To be honest, I am not sure whether Arduino's approach to contributors is a net benefit, when weighing the value of patches applied vs the disillusionment generated.

[q2dg2b]

I couldn't say it better, Arnav, E.fahle and Bob

I hope that the current legal issue will open Arduino Team's eyes once and for all: without community, you're nothing.

It's not too late yet...but time goes by: if you don't change soon the way of managing development and collaboration, there will be no future for Arduino.