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Off-topic: Checked out the N++ repo, and saw it's got 2.1k open issues and 7.2k closed ones, and this is from an org that seems to be just one or two devs. How

by rfmc 3y ago

Off-topic: Checked out the N++ repo, and saw it's got 2.1k open issues and 7.2k closed ones, and this is from an org that seems to be just one or two devs. How's that even sustainable? I've got zero experience in maintaining big open-source projects, but those numbers would freak me out, to say the least. Way past what I'd call manageable.

pc86 3y ago
And they still push out releases constantly. I don't use it every day but it seems every 2nd or 3rd time I open N++ there is an update. It's truly impressive.
bombcar 3y ago
It’s just like people who have 40,000 unread emails. You just ignore the old ones.
delfinom 3y ago
Welcome to the reality of open source, it's a very limited few dedicated developers often supporting up hundred of thousands of users. The answer? Just maintain the project as the hobby it started as. Open source is provided without warranty and users are more than free to use the provided binaries for their convenience as-is or learn to compile to contribute fixes.
- psychphysic 3y ago
  Yeah feature creep is a crime in open source projects. It's killed more useful projects than it's ever benefitted.
  - delfinom 3y ago
    One of the worst parts as a core developer of a OSS software is when you get drive-by pull requests of large changes without that person attempting pre-discussion. Said large changes try to introduce feature creep outside what the core team of dedicated developers that will actually stick around for years want or can actually maintain. You then end up with that drive-by pull requester spitting venom everywhere on twitter and other forums about how hostile the project is
    - lelanthran 3y ago
      > One of the worst parts as a core developer of a OSS software is when you get drive-by pull requests of large changes without that person attempting pre-discussion. Depends on what you mean by "large changes". I've done drive-bys of changes, but they were, in my opinion, small changes. (I think I'm in the credits for Lucaschess somewhere because of a 10-line change).
  - gilleain 3y ago
    Ok maybe, but N++ has some great features. For example: - Line operations (sort, remove blank lines, etc) - Find/replace that can use either normal, {\n, \r, etc}, or regex - Right-click to highlight a word in one colour, and then another word in another ... One of my favourite Windows programs, along with Ditto (clipboard manager)
flohofwoe 3y ago
The number of open issues doesn't tell much about the health of the project, especially on a bare-bones bug tracker like Github. For instance: how many of those are actual bugs versus feature requests versus just questions. Of the actual bugs, how many of those are actually critical and need fixing? As long as incoming tickets are looked at and prioritized, and those tickets that come out on top are fixed in a timely manner all is good. The team also just might not close any 'stale' issues that never made it to the top of the priority queue (some projects automatically close stale tickets after 1 month of inactivity, which is arguably worse). FWIW the PR page is in much better shape: 11 Open vs 3664 Closed.
0x000xca0xfe 3y ago
It has a lot of users and many niche issues, they do not have to fix them all. I fixed an issue myself that got on my nerve and was already sitting in the bugtracker for years, so they are more like helpful forum posts.

by rfmc 3y ago

pc86 3y ago

And they still push out releases constantly. I don't use it every day but it seems every 2nd or 3rd time I open N++ there is an update. It's truly impressive.

bombcar 3y ago

It’s just like people who have 40,000 unread emails. You just ignore the old ones.

delfinom 3y ago

Welcome to the reality of open source, it's a very limited few dedicated developers often supporting up hundred of thousands of users. The answer? Just maintain the project as the hobby it started as. Open source is provided without warranty and users are more than free to use the provided binaries for their convenience as-is or learn to compile to contribute fixes.

psychphysic 3y ago
Yeah feature creep is a crime in open source projects. It's killed more useful projects than it's ever benefitted.
- delfinom 3y ago
  One of the worst parts as a core developer of a OSS software is when you get drive-by pull requests of large changes without that person attempting pre-discussion. Said large changes try to introduce feature creep outside what the core team of dedicated developers that will actually stick around for years want or can actually maintain. You then end up with that drive-by pull requester spitting venom everywhere on twitter and other forums about how hostile the project is
  - lelanthran 3y ago
    > One of the worst parts as a core developer of a OSS software is when you get drive-by pull requests of large changes without that person attempting pre-discussion. Depends on what you mean by "large changes". I've done drive-bys of changes, but they were, in my opinion, small changes. (I think I'm in the credits for Lucaschess somewhere because of a 10-line change).
- gilleain 3y ago
  Ok maybe, but N++ has some great features. For example: - Line operations (sort, remove blank lines, etc) - Find/replace that can use either normal, {\n, \r, etc}, or regex - Right-click to highlight a word in one colour, and then another word in another ... One of my favourite Windows programs, along with Ditto (clipboard manager)

flohofwoe 3y ago

The number of open issues doesn't tell much about the health of the project, especially on a bare-bones bug tracker like Github. For instance: how many of those are actual bugs versus feature requests versus just questions. Of the actual bugs, how many of those are actually critical and need fixing? As long as incoming tickets are looked at and prioritized, and those tickets that come out on top are fixed in a timely manner all is good. The team also just might not close any 'stale' issues that never made it to the top of the priority queue (some projects automatically close stale tickets after 1 month of inactivity, which is arguably worse). FWIW the PR page is in much better shape: 11 Open vs 3664 Closed.

0x000xca0xfe 3y ago

It has a lot of users and many niche issues, they do not have to fix them all. I fixed an issue myself that got on my nerve and was already sitting in the bugtracker for years, so they are more like helpful forum posts.