[sword-devel] Which is preferred in OSIS Bibles? bookGroup or x-testament?

[DM Smith]

On Feb 14, 2012, at 3:52 AM, David Haslam wrote:

> Are we open source or aren't we?

This is a leading, rhetorical question, playing on the word open. But I'll try to answer.

Open refers to the distribution and use of the code, not to any policies regarding its development. In the case of JSword and SWORD, it is GPLed, allowing anyone to distribute and modify the code at will.

Regarding development, open does not mean egalitarian development. Most open source projects have one or more gatekeepers whose (implicit) approval is needed for every change. For SWORD, it is mostly Troy, but also Chris. For JSword, it is me (and Joe, if he wishes). Broadly, the purpose of the gatekeeper is to ensure that changes to the fundamental architecture are appropriate. And to manage those with commit privileges.

Committers are a broader pool of users whose rights may be scoped to a portion of the project. Generally one becomes a committer by submitting many changes of value to the project as a whole, demonstrating an understanding of the fundamental architecture of the project.

People who are not committers can get their work included by discussion (e.g. here or IRC) and patches. Developing a patch is no guarantee of inclusion. It has to get noticed by a committer. It is my preference that these (discussion and patches) be recorded in our "bugs" database, Jira, so they are not lost over time.

For JSword, we have a much smaller base of frontends and developers and could more readily accept changes. SWORD has much more inertia.

> 
> If Greg has developed some good patches, why was he being denied commit
> privileges?

I can't answer this for SWORD, but for JSword, it would have taken more to get that privilege. The real question is why someone with commit privs didn't step up to the plate and champion his patches. I could have. I didn't. I've apologized to him. IMHO, even if it weren't appropriate for mod2osis to change, it was appropriate for it to be included, even if under a different name, e.g. osis_mod2osis.

In His Service,
	DM


> 
> David
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