Re: [cross-project-issues-dev] JFace Generics

[John Arthorne <John_Arthorne@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Eike Stepper <stepper@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote on 08/30/2013
05:59:14 AM:

> >The project is it's contributors not it's API.
> 
> That sounds a little as if Eclipse projects are only playgrounds for
> "the cool kids". I think a project is successful if 
> what it produces (including the APIs) is successful, i.e. widely 
> adopted. The adopters have to be pleased, not the contributors.

You're definitely wrong about this part. Committers
and contributors will always have the final say. An adopter that is not
contributing has *absolutely* no say in the direction of the project. This
is not my opinion - this is clearly defined in the Eclipse charter, by-laws,
and dev process, and is the same for most other open source projects. The
historic platform contributors (e.g., IBM), placed extremely high value
on stability and compatibility. If those committers are gone and a new
set of committers arrives that values innovation and change over stability
and compatibility, then that's the direction the project will take. If
adopters don't like that direction, then they need to get involved to influence
the direction, fork the project, etc. Even as a PMC member I have no right
to value the needs of adopters over contributors - quite the opposite I
have a clearly defined obligation to enable the project's contributors
to make progress in the direction they want to take.

John