Andy Parkins said the following on 25.07.2007 13:05:
On Wednesday 2007 July 25, Johannes Schindelin wrote:So this leaves me with the question: do Windows users really want a proper native Windows support for Git? If the answer is yes, why don't they _do_ (as in "not talk") something about it?I don't disagree with you at all - it is completely ridiculous for Windows users to moan about lack of Windows support without contributing any help. However, I think there is a good reason. I think it's a chicken and egg problem. The only reason I started making (small) contributions to git was because I was using it already. I didn't set out with the goal "to improve git"; I set out looking for a DVCS. Luckily for me, I use Linux so git worked pretty well for me straight away. The same is not true for Windows users. Even if we ignore the fact that Windows users are notoriously less open-source savvy; it's unlikely that we'll get any Windows contributions until there are some threshold number of developers using git on Windows. Open-source is all about scratching an itch, I can't see how Windows developers can get a gitch to scratch without being users of git first. On the positive side though, there surely must come a point when the Windows port is "good enough" that it will start to gather users and hence developers. Until then, I suppose it's just a matter of shouting "patch" every time a windows user asks for a feature :-)
Hi Andy, Your mail is refreshingly spot on. I agree fully with what you say.I will try to do my part to get Git to this 'threshold', so we can get a proper Windows community behind it too. (It's just a matter of time and resources, which I hope we clear up soon) My first roadmap item will be to get a fully native compile of the built-in code. If we at least have a Git built with native tools, I think we'll have a lot more people wanting(/able?) to contribute.
AFAIK the MinGW port is cross-compiled on Linux, and can be hard to set up on Windows. The required MinGW packages are scattered all over the place. So, it's not impossible at the moment, but I guess most Windows users feel a bit unmotivated to work on the code mostly since they'll have to develop using Cygwin. (I don't know if that's the reason, just a hunch)
So, IMO its not that Windows users don't _want_ to contribute. I think they feel they can't. Let's see if we can fix that. I'll let the list know as soon as I get native builds going.
Later! -- .marius
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