patch pilot report

[Martin Pool]

Thanks for getting all those patches finished and for sending a report.

> With patch piloting I struggle that I'm not qualified to review many
> patches, the last thing I want to do is approve a patch only to find
> it contains some obvious problem I overlooked.  Also many merge
> proposals have ongoing conversations and it seems those who have already
> commented are best qualified to take it to approval.

That can be hard.

It's nice if the pilot can get everything cleared, but for less
experienced people it's not realistic, and we need to remember that
even helping one patch is worthwhile.

If you're not confident to review a patch there are some still some
options available:
 * ask questions about things that do look wrong, or just not clearly right
 * say "I don't know this well but what I can understand looks ok"
 * ask/remind some other specific developer to review it
 * download the branch and test it interactively

If there's a live conversation and it seems on track probably not
action is necessary.  If nothing has happened for a few days you can
 * try to summarize the conversation and what needs to be done
 * prod someone to follow up

Review tries to deal with all (most) developers writing imperfect
code; piloting is partly to address most developers being imperfectly
organized about integrating work.

Martin