RFR: Added section for newcomers [v2]

Magnus Ihse Bursie ihse at openjdk.java.net
Wed Nov 18 22:00:13 UTC 2020


On Wed, 18 Nov 2020 21:10:14 GMT, Stuart Marks <smarks at openjdk.org> wrote:

>> @stuart-marks I think all your bullet points here are very good. But I think they'll be just too much in this kind of "TL;DR" introduction that Jesper is trying to write here. Perhaps a solution is to add a heading like "Why is it so hard to contributes changes to OpenJDK?" (or maybe phrased somewhat less contentiously) further down the file. 
>> 
>> And keep this part short; perhaps even shorter than it is now, something like:
>> 
>> `
>> Once the OCA is signed, please restrain your urge to create a PR just a little while longer. In order to prepare the community for your patch, please socialize your idea on the relevant [mailing lists](#mailing-lists). Due to a variety of reasons, getting a patch into OpenJDK projects is not like in a normal, small, GitHub hobbyist project. To understand the criteria by which your patch is going to be judged,  please read [Submit well-motivated changes](#submit-well-motivated-changes). In short, code contributed to the JDK will be judged by its stability, maintainability, compatibility, complexity, and effects on specifications. If you do not understand the constraints for acceptance, you might be surprised when your PR is rejected.
>> `
>> 
>> And then take Stuarts list above and merge it with Jespers original prose about how Java is a popular product and that all changes affect millions of developers into a separate "Submit well-motivated changes" section after the mailing lists, or so.
>
> Hm yes, that did turn into a wall of text, didn't it? :-) Maybe for the paragraph itself, just pull off the bullet headers and list them as reasons, without further elaboration here. So the second part of the paragraph might read something like,
> 
>> Even though many ideas are indeed good, we must be quite restrictive on what we actually include into the JDK. There are many reasons for this, including: hidden constraints and assumptions, stability and quality, maintainability, compatibility, and conformance to specifications.
> 
> No need to list every one of the bullet items; the above is probably enough.
> 
> We can discuss the need for a "Why is it so hard to contribute to OpenJDK?" section separately. I suspect we'll need something like that sooner or later. Meanwhile, the text I wrote will be here and we can from copy it later.

�� 

I like your suggestion. And yes, we can save the elaboration for a later date.

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PR: https://git.openjdk.java.net/guide/pull/38


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