> Like in any Free Software project, developers are leaving from time to > time to pursue other projects. And from time to time, new developers > are joining the team and starting to contribute. However, it looks > like the number of new developers joining the GIMP development has > been decreasing in the recent years. Probably one of the main reasons is that Gimp isn't the only major open-source end-user app anymore. But yes, I would not be surprised if Gimp was percieved as stagnating. > There should be a section on www.gimp.org or developer.gimp.org titled > "How to contribute?" or "How to get involved?". It should be easy for > potential new developers to see where to start and how they can help. Absolutely. We need to make it as easy as possible. > It would be very nice to have Windows binaries for the development > version. I would say that Mac users and Windows users are much more likely to expect and use binaries. > Is Bugzilla too hard to use for new users? > ------------------------------------------ > > It was suggested to make it easier for users to submit bug reports, > for example by having an e-mail address to which bug reports can be > sent without having to register to Bugzilla (we already have such an > address, although it is not widely known). Personally, I'd like to see Bugzilla be the only place for gimp bugs. > This proposal was rejected because most of the bug reports (especially > from new users) are incomplete and require additional information. If > the user does not have a Bugzilla account, it is not possible to rely on > the automatic notification system to send messages to the user when a > comment is added to their bug report or when the status of their bug > report changes. Agreed. > Most developers consider Bugzilla to be a very valuable tool that > works well. Instead of trying to hide Bugzilla from the users, we > should try to make it as easy as possible for the new users to join. > This is already done to some extent by the bug submission wizard > available from http://bugs.gimp.org/. There is a small problem with > the GNOME2 keyword that prevents the open GIMP bugs from being > displayed to the user and we should try to get this fixed. A good wizard would go a long way towards making first-time Bugzilla submission not so overwhelming. > List of open tasks > ------------------ > > There are many open bug reports or proposals for enhancements that > would be relatively easy to fix or implement. We should make it > easier for potential contributors to see the list of easy tasks that > are open. The "easy tasks" should include anything that can be done > in one or two hours by an average developer or maybe a bit more if the > contributor is not familiar with the code. > > The best way to keep the list of open tasks up-to-date is probably to > base it on Bugzilla. We could for example use a Bugzilla keyword for > all bugs that are easy to fix (there is already a keyword "easy-fix" > reserved for that, although we could invent our own). It would then > be easy to create a Bugzilla query showing the list of easy tasks. I think that this is the best solution. I have already marked some easy bugs with the easy-fix keyword. > Another solution would be to have a page on www.gimp.org or > developer.g.o containing a list of all these bugs, with direct links > to the corresponding bug reports. The second solution may require a > bit more work because it would have to be maintained by someone, but > it might be a bit easier to use. I doubt there would be much advantage to doing this. > > > The following items should be available in the web site: > - "How to contribute?" / "Getting involved" > - List of tasks I propose that other outstanding tasks, like things that we would like to see in the next version, be available as Bugzilla query links. When necessary, we can add keywords or tracking bugs. > - List of sources of contains some useful items such as "Bugs", "FAQ", > etc. information (mailing lists, newsgroup, ...) - FAQ > > As with the other documents summarizing what is happening here at > GimpCon, comments are welcome...
