[llvm-dev] Target Acceptance Policy

[Mehdi Amini via llvm-dev]

> On Jul 26, 2016, at 10:28 AM, Renato Golin <renato.golin at linaro.org> wrote:
> 
> On 26 July 2016 at 17:50, Mehdi Amini <mehdi.amini at apple.com> wrote:
>> No, the problem is that your writing is making an exception to the developer policy, and I don’t think it is a good thing.
> 
> I think requiring such a high bar from start is not a good community
> sportsmanship.

Yet this is exactly what we do for any new contributor that wants to add a new pass in the compiler for instance, even if it is not enabled in the default pipeline (which is equivalent to the experimental stage somehow).


> 
> I want to help other people to understand and follow our guidelines,
> and the best place to do this, is to have an experimental stage, where
> the back-end is in tree but not officially built.

I disagree, the best place for that is with a patch reviewed.

It is very hard to evaluate how much coverage components gets with lit-based test without doing it while integrating patches.
I just don’t see any viable alternative, re-evaluating the full target and its tests every other month is just *not* practical.

I you don’t have a good way to integrate the patches in good conditions (i.e. with conferment coding style and good tests), you’ll never get there later (or at very high cost).


> This gives them time
> to address all comments with our help. We want targets as much as they
> want to be in LLVM. It's a cooperation and acting inflexibly won't
> help anyone.

I believe that it helps everyone on the opposite.

> 
> Also, if we put all the blockages in the first stop, what's the point
> of being experimental in the first place?

All the rest of what you described in (show that the maintainer is active, etc.), and also, waiting for the implementation to be “complete” (as in “all patches integrated”).

— 
Mehdi


> 
> 
>> There is no edge cases in question here.
> 
> Chandler has found a number of edge cases on my original (more strict)
> writing. This is a revised text, and by all means, will have cases
> that we didn't foresee.
> 
> 
>> I have a totally different opinion: they submit a patch, we request changes, and if they don’t the code never gets in tree in the first place.
> 
> I hear, loud and clear. I also understand the reasons. I just don't
> share your opinion that this is valid in *every* case.
> 
> We usually reserved strong policies for critical problems (legal,
> license, patents, copyright), and less strict ones for more common
> sense kind of things. May not be perfect, but it's a balance.
> 
> cheers,
> --renato