Hi,
I'm writing with regards to the community module handling.
The proposal still needs improvements, but at the same
time we have two potential community modules that have been
waiting.
One of them, the HTML image map extension, has been really waiting forever (2 months, omg... http://www.nabble.com/GeoServer-HTML-ImageMap-extension--to13237227.html#a13252566).
The other, SLD rest API, for about a week.
These times are way too long. We are in a situation where
we lack contributors, we don't need to setup barriers
for modules to enter community, but only to prevent them
for entering into the main distribution carelessly.
I don't know about you, but if I was in Mauro's place I would
be between the pissed off and the hope lost state of mind.
So what I'm proposing is that we:
* make the two modules enter the community section right away
in the 1.6.x branch
* make it so entering the community section it's easy
To enter, we should only ask a review from a developer and
there you enter in the branch the module has been developed
for. The module won't be part of the build. To enter the
build the module would have to be building and be documented.
To become part of the distribution we would ask for more.
To avoid the mess, also exiting the community section should
be easy. If a module has been developed for a branch, it won't
be inserted into trunk unless the donor feels like mantaining
it there too. If a module has been developed for trunk, we wait
a stable release to eventually shake it off: when branching we
ask the developer if he's still ok mantaining it, if we don't
have a positive answer the module will be removed from trunk
(so it will stay on the stable branch only and be forgot once
the stable branch dies).
What do you think? The discussion on the procedures can
go on and on, we are in no hurry, what we should hurry for is
to allow those two people to get their contribution included
in GeoServer. Two months for a module to be accepted is bordering
ridiculous.
Cheers
Andrea