[News.eclipse.foundation] Re: E4 / SWT 4.0

[Eric Rizzo <eclipse-news@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Boris Bokowski wrote:
> But honestly, things are changing. Looking at the list of active committers 
> for the Platform project, and more specifically Platform UI (JFace, 
> Workbench, IDE), there are six active committers who work for IBM and two 
> who don't work for IBM. With Francis joining our team, we will have six vs. 
> three, or 66% IBMers and 33% non-IBMers, which I think is quite good given 
> that we are talking about a mature code base that has been developed by only 
> IBMers over many years.
>
> Just to be clear, this is real participation in a core piece of Eclipse.  We 
> are certainly not as diverse as for example CDT, but if you compare with 
> other projects at Eclipse that started with a contribution from a single 
> company, I believe that we are opening this up pretty successfully.  (At 
> least that is how I like to think about it.)

That is indeed very good and encouraging news. However, is it just an 
anomaly (as Ed's diligence in fixing EMF bug reports is), or is there 
more evidence of that happening across the board in other Eclipse projects?


> So in a nutshell, participation is possible and real, and it might even be 
> rewarding. Talk to e.g. Tom Schindl, Matthew Hall, or Francis Upton if you 
> want to find out more about how they became committers and why they are 
> doing it.

Can we extrapolate the behaviors, actions, and results of the truly 
exceptional to the general population? I think not. I think Eclipse 
projects should make it easier for the average community member to 
contribute more, even for those who are not as dedicated, talented, and 
tenacious as Tom, Matthew, and Francis.

Eric