One Approach To Open Source Code Contribution and Testing

An anonymous reader writes "Brian Aker, one of the core developers of MySQL, has written up a lengthy blog on how the Drizzle fork is handling both its code contributions and its testing. He has listed the tools they use and how they work with their processes. He also makes an interesting statement about the signing of corporate code-contribution agreements and how there are some, including Rasmus (creator of PHP), who refuse to sign them."

Re:Here's my approach

[FooAtWFU]

Your approach has some merit... the thing is... have you ever seen that closed source software? .... yeah it's more of the same, trust me.

all-your-code-is-ours

[Red Flayer]

I don't write code anymore. At all. It's not my source of income, and I value other hobbies higher.

Yet I refused to sign an all-your-code-belongs-to-us agreement at my current employer, and almost didn't get the job because of it. The HR red-tape machine couldn't deal with a process exception, so the CFO of the company had to step in to resolve the issue on their end with their legal team.

The reason I'm sharing it is this: the clueless HR drones are the ones enforcing the sign-it-or-go-away policy. If you're worth your salt, and the company management is good, they'll make exceptions. And from a principles point of view, you probably shouldn't work from a company that wants to enslave you.

There, fixed it for you

[ClosedSource]

"The powerless HR employees ..."

Don't blame individuals for a systemic problem.

Re:all-your-code-is-ours

[internerdj]

And from a principles point of view, you probably shouldn't work from a company that wants to enslave you.
While this is nice in principle, nearly every company wants to enslave you and even those that don't want you to sign similar slips of paper to work for them. I love my job and they really don't want to enslave me, but when I came in I didn't have the leverage to not sign. Good for you that you were but for the rest of us: Odds are they won't bother with following through with something like that unless a) it is in competition (or perceived competition) with the company or b) it is interfering with your performance or c) they can leverage it into something that would rake in large profits with little expenditure.

Emoticons

[AltImage]

Is it really necessary to have 6 smilie faces in the article? I wonder how many also show up in the Drizzle source. I also find it interesting that the author opts for the less common "no-nose smilie face" :)

Marketing

[Ukab the Great]

A drizzle is a display of rain that is rather unimpressive. Also, it's a prelude to heavy rain and getting soaked and miserable. On the Drizzle website is a picture of a rainy cloud, which at least in western cultures is an image associated with things that are unhappy.

At this point in their project I think that some smart marketing is more important than nitpicking over code.

Re:all-your-code-is-ours

[ezzzD55J]

I want you to work for me. I have no desire to pay you to start up a competing company - do that on your own dime like I did.

I don't get it. What you pay him is his own dime.

Re:all-your-code-is-ours

[jonwil]

If you are paying me to come into an office every day and write code for you, you own the stuff I do whilst I am in the office and you are paying me. You should NOT have any claim to the ideas I work on when I am not in the office and being paid by you. If you want to claim ownership of the ideas I have on the weekend when I am not being paid by you, forget it.