discussion about Pencil Code philosophy (deadline 23 May)

[Axel Brandenburg]

Dear all,
This is a solicitation of contributions to the next Pencil Code
Newsletter to initiate an open discussion about the Pencil Code
philosophy. Currently, it entails a low threshold of accepting
contributions and changes to the code, and the tendency of accepting
most changes directly into the main branch.

The need for such a discussion is motivated by recent views from
the community that the handling of changes is too lax and that it is
advantageous to make changes first on a separate branch and then merge
them with the main branch once the development is completed. This
has to be weighed against the view that the code might diverge into
many subversion. There can clearly be many other arguments in favor
or against changing the current Pencil Code philosophy. We hope that
with more carefully developed arguments and reports from the community,
a more thorough assessment can be made.

Your text will be published in the next newsletter as a contribution
under your name. As all previous newsletters, this one will be published
on GitHub; see

https://github.com/pencil-code/website/tree/master/NewsLetters

As usual, all contributions will be reviewed and potential changes will
be made by the editors in consultation with the authors.

The deadline for contributions is Friday, 23 May. However, if any of
you can't make this deadline, please let us know in advance. Obviously,
the content is important, not the exact timing.
Cheers, Matthias & Axel