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I can't find it now, but I read something just a few days ago saying that some prominent Debian members very much want to see the development/maintainership exp

I can't find it now, but I read something just a few days ago saying that some prominent Debian members very much want to see the development/maintainership experience of the OS modernized and improved. They are suggesting (but not demanding) that packages be maintained by teams rather than individuals, manage source packages on Debian's own Gitlab instance, accept issues and PRs via Gitlab, better CI and testing infrastructure for packages, and so on. I respect the fact that current Debian development practices have carried the OS this far, but lowering the barrier to entry for volunteers to help maintain the OS going forward could only be a good thing.

JonChesterfield 2y ago
Lowering the bar to entry in software can absolutely be a bad thing in a wide range of ways. The most obvious in the current context is possibly well intentioned amateurs proposing LLM generated patches for the usual developers to fritter away their time on until patience runs out.
- bityard 2y ago
  I suppose that _could_ happen, but I don't see it as very likely. Maintainers are absolutely free to decline low-quality patches or ignore with contributors who expect an unreasonable amount of hand-holding. This is completely independent of whether the code was generated by an LLM or human. I have seen maintainers who, after a few rounds of code review on a PR that's not making any progress, close the PR and say, "I appreciate your efforts but this is taking up too much time. Please address the remaining issues independently and submit a new PR once you believe you have addressed them all." The other possibility is that the LLM-generated patch is actually fine. If it looks okay and passes the automated tests, then I can't see why it shouldn't be merged. (Assuming Debian doesn't or hasn't enacted a blanket-ban on LLM-generated code.)
homebrewer 2y ago
https://lwn.net/Articles/986480/ https://lwn.net/Articles/986480/
- bityard 2y ago
  Yes! That's the thing.

JonChesterfield 2y ago

Lowering the bar to entry in software can absolutely be a bad thing in a wide range of ways. The most obvious in the current context is possibly well intentioned amateurs proposing LLM generated patches for the usual developers to fritter away their time on until patience runs out.

bityard 2y ago
I suppose that _could_ happen, but I don't see it as very likely. Maintainers are absolutely free to decline low-quality patches or ignore with contributors who expect an unreasonable amount of hand-holding. This is completely independent of whether the code was generated by an LLM or human. I have seen maintainers who, after a few rounds of code review on a PR that's not making any progress, close the PR and say, "I appreciate your efforts but this is taking up too much time. Please address the remaining issues independently and submit a new PR once you believe you have addressed them all." The other possibility is that the LLM-generated patch is actually fine. If it looks okay and passes the automated tests, then I can't see why it shouldn't be merged. (Assuming Debian doesn't or hasn't enacted a blanket-ban on LLM-generated code.)

homebrewer 2y ago

https://lwn.net/Articles/986480/ https://lwn.net/Articles/986480/

bityard 2y ago
Yes! That's the thing.