Hi, On Wed, 25 Jul 2007, Marius Storm-Olsen wrote: > 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. Well, why don't people come here then, say "I am willing to test whatever you throw at me, and contribute the installer"? Huh? I once (AGAIN!) extend this offer to _anybody_. I'll make a zip of everything you need, I'll fix bugs as you report them, I'll do plenty of stuff. But you have to give me an INCENTIVE! (I am usually not such a shouter, but underlining seems not to help here. As can be seen by the infamous "When can I expect" mail.) > 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) No, not even close. It is written in README.MinGW how to go about compiling yourself. Only Han-Wen cross-compiled the beast on Linux. > 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 beg to differ here, strongly. On the two first points at least. On the third point, I am already disap-point-ed. Ciao, Dscho - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe git" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
