Create a ghc-simple-patch-propose list? Re: Notes from Ben's "contribute to ghc" discussion

[Michael Sloan]

This sounds like an ideal solution, Ben!  As has been discussed many
times before, GitHub has many users familiar with its interface.  By
allowing GitHub PRs, the initial contribution

I think it would be acceptable for larger GitHub PRs to have some
automated boilerplate response.  Ideally this would look like:

"""
Thanks for making this patch!  I've turned this into a Phab
Differential xxx and closed this PR.  Please create a differential
account associated with your email address ..."
"""

The email address can be automatically pulled from commit metadata.
If one is absent, then this automated process isn't possible.  If it
is present and

So, I'm imagining a utility that interfaces between both GitHub and
Phab,allowing the following commands:

* "ghc-hub migrate https://github.com/ghc/ghc/pull/1" - migrates the
patch to differential.  It may attempt to migrate body and title of
the initial post, but lets not bother with migrating any review data.

* "ghc-hub merge https://github.com/ghc/ghc/pull/1" - merges the
patch.  This is used for merging small patches.  It would not do an
automated push.  Maybe have "--push" also perform the push?  So like
if you are on master, then "ghc-hub merge
https://github.com/ghc/ghc/pull/1 --push" would merge the patches and
push to master.

How does this sound?  I like the idea a lot, and would enjoy helping
with implementation, time permitting.  I could possibly start hacking
on it if others give the go ahead of "Yes, lets do that".

-Michael

On Mon, Sep 26, 2016 at 11:45 AM, Ben Gamari <ben at smart-cactus.org> wrote:
> Carter Schonwald <carter.schonwald at gmail.com> writes:
>
>> In writing the following huge wall of text, I had and idea that I think
>> many folks would find palatable:
>>
>> What if simple small patches (such as hypothetical drive by doc patches )
>> had a mailing list where folks could email the simple / small patches as
>> email attachments plus a body text that summarizes the patch, what it does,
>> and why it's simple!
>>
> I completely agree that for small (e.g. documentation) patches our
> current system is quite heavy. For this reason I suggested at ICFP that
> we simply begin accepting small patches via GitHub pull requests.
> Frankly, this is less work for me than merging patches from a mailing
> list and I believe many users feel that GitHub is more accessible than a
> mailing list.
>
> The problem of course is what subset of patches do we want to allow to
> be taken via GitHub. My suggested answer to that is any patch which, if
> I were to write it myself, I would feel comfortable pushing directly to
> the tree.
>
> Then there is the question of what do we do with pull requests opened
> which do not satisfy this criterion. In this case I would likely open a
> Phabricator Differential with the pull request and close the pull
> request with a link to the Diff. In the ideal case this will inspire the
> contributor to join the review process on Phabricator; in the worst case
> review turns up issues in the patch and the user gives up. Either way, at
> least the contributor feels his patch has been seen and given the
> attention it deserves.
>
> Cheers,
>
> - Ben
>
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