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Excellent summary. I'm really happy that Apple open-sourced Swift in this way. However, most of the ~400 pull requests are fixes for single typos. I hope that

Excellent summary. I'm really happy that Apple open-sourced Swift in this way. However, most of the ~400 pull requests are fixes for single typos. I hope that managing the GitHub issues won't become too much of a burden for the main developers (those with write access to the repository).

shurcooL 11y ago
It's not a very hard problem to solve though. Just fix the typos, and don't introduce (many) new ones. The people contributing those fixes are doing so because they want to contribute, and typo fixes are very easy to be certain about that it's an improvement (without a chance of introducing regressions, etc.). Of course, as the easy-to-fix problems are eliminated, focus will shift to finding more meaningful ways to make improvements, or just using the language which has fewer problems as a result.
- elwell 11y ago
  Yeah, it's looks good on your GitHub profile to be a 'contributor' to Swift.
  - edgyswingset 11y ago
    This brings up an interesting problem to solve: How to tell if something is a "real" contributor rather than someone who sends the occasional spelling fix. I imagine recruiters would be interested in some way to easily tell this.
    - TheDrizzle43 11y ago
      All they have to do is ask them in the phone screen "So what did you contribute to Swift?"
      - dvcrn 11y ago
        "I analysed the swift codebase for character sequence problems and actively contributed in reducing these. My contributions were responsible for eliminating hundreds of possible issue reports to the project."
    - mikeash 11y ago
      Is it too much to ask that they actually look at the content of the pull requests?
    - krig 11y ago
      How is that a problem? If you really want to know the details, they are a single git query away.
    - bechampion 11y ago
      good point , but it applied to every open source project too
    - feelix 11y ago
      One solution would be to implement upvotes/downvotes on github pull requests.
    - gmac 11y ago
      My suspicion is that someone who's smart, engaged and motivated enough to have figured out a way to be able to say they're a Swift contributor by fixing typos is probably in the top 10% of candidates anyway.
    - issaria 11y ago
      A contribution for a typo is also a serious contribution
Cthulhu_ 11y ago
That's the low-hanging fruit; actually contributing to the language requires an 'in' with the development team, possibly knowledge of C++, and of course knowledge of building programming languages. Although I've seen that a lot of the basic Swift types are written in Swift, so that would be an area to improve too - that is, if anyone can spot one. Is there a task list for the project? I don't see an 'issues' page.
- tomguthrie 11y ago
  Issues are at https://bugs.swift.org https://bugs.swift.org
mietek 11y ago
There have been some fantastic pull requests. Examples: https://github.com/apple/swift/pull/253 https://github.com/apple/swift/pull/253 https://github.com/apple/swift/pull/272 https://github.com/apple/swift/pull/272
- andreasley 11y ago
  Exactly: It's important that they don't get lost in the noise.

shurcooL 11y ago

It's not a very hard problem to solve though. Just fix the typos, and don't introduce (many) new ones. The people contributing those fixes are doing so because they want to contribute, and typo fixes are very easy to be certain about that it's an improvement (without a chance of introducing regressions, etc.). Of course, as the easy-to-fix problems are eliminated, focus will shift to finding more meaningful ways to make improvements, or just using the language which has fewer problems as a result.

elwell 11y ago
Yeah, it's looks good on your GitHub profile to be a 'contributor' to Swift.
- edgyswingset 11y ago
  This brings up an interesting problem to solve: How to tell if something is a "real" contributor rather than someone who sends the occasional spelling fix. I imagine recruiters would be interested in some way to easily tell this.
  - TheDrizzle43 11y ago
    All they have to do is ask them in the phone screen "So what did you contribute to Swift?"
    - dvcrn 11y ago
      "I analysed the swift codebase for character sequence problems and actively contributed in reducing these. My contributions were responsible for eliminating hundreds of possible issue reports to the project."
  - mikeash 11y ago
    Is it too much to ask that they actually look at the content of the pull requests?
  - krig 11y ago
    How is that a problem? If you really want to know the details, they are a single git query away.
  - bechampion 11y ago
    good point , but it applied to every open source project too
  - feelix 11y ago
    One solution would be to implement upvotes/downvotes on github pull requests.
  - gmac 11y ago
    My suspicion is that someone who's smart, engaged and motivated enough to have figured out a way to be able to say they're a Swift contributor by fixing typos is probably in the top 10% of candidates anyway.
  - issaria 11y ago
    A contribution for a typo is also a serious contribution

Cthulhu_ 11y ago

That's the low-hanging fruit; actually contributing to the language requires an 'in' with the development team, possibly knowledge of C++, and of course knowledge of building programming languages. Although I've seen that a lot of the basic Swift types are written in Swift, so that would be an area to improve too - that is, if anyone can spot one. Is there a task list for the project? I don't see an 'issues' page.

tomguthrie 11y ago
Issues are at https://bugs.swift.org https://bugs.swift.org

mietek 11y ago

There have been some fantastic pull requests. Examples: https://github.com/apple/swift/pull/253 https://github.com/apple/swift/pull/253 https://github.com/apple/swift/pull/272 https://github.com/apple/swift/pull/272

andreasley 11y ago
Exactly: It's important that they don't get lost in the noise.