Re:Moving Django to GitHub: the postmortem
by elithrar on Sunday April 29, 2012 @02:13AM
(#3905266)
> I would have liked them to move to bitbucket.org because it was built with Django.
But Mercurial itself wasn't (although it was written mostly in Python). I think this is a good example of taking the pragmatic choice (GitHub) over the ideological choice (Bitbucket).
Re:Moving Django to GitHub: the postmortem
by mryan on Sunday April 29, 2012 @05:01AM
(#3905549)
That's mostly irrelevant. A lot of people are not using Github just because it supports git - the network effect is one of the key drivers in choosing Github.
Re:Moving Django to GitHub: the postmortem
by zem on Saturday April 28, 2012 @10:46PM
(#3904911)
is it really valuable to keep the svn repository up for scripts that do automatic updating? since nothing further will ever be pushed to it, those scripts are now tracking an increasingly out-of-date repo.
the other point of view is that there are servers that the admin has had a reasonable expectation of being able to set up and let run itself, but those servers shouldn't be pulling from anyone's svn repo anyway.
Re:Moving Django to GitHub: the postmortem
by adrianh on Saturday April 28, 2012 @10:49PM
(#3904918)
Actually I checked with the dictionary before posting, because I had that same concern. (I was a newspaper copyeditor for a while.) Postmortem can mean "any analysis following an event." It's not just for death.
Re:Moving Django to GitHub: the postmortem
by eblume on Saturday April 28, 2012 @11:16PM
(#3904971)
Definitions notwithstanding, I tend to prefer the term 'AAR' (After Action Report). I had a manager in an early campus IT job that had been in the Marines, and he enforced a strict mandatory-AAR policy for anything even remotely complex.
It's really a fantastic idea and something I fully intend to use in every capacity that makes sense going forward. It doesn't make much sense as part of the software design flow, but it absolutely could (and probably should) be a tool in any deployment protocol.
My AARs usually read pretty much like this blog post, more or less to the T, although we emphasized what we would do differently in the future more.
Re:Moving Django to GitHub: the postmortem
by wpietri on Sunday April 29, 2012 @12:26AM
(#3905093)
Yeah, I think it's an excellent practice. I get the metaphorical use of "postmortem", but think "after-action report" (for the document) and "retrospective" (for the meeting) better capture the flavor of what a good one looks like. And like you, I think the most valuable part is what to do differently next time.
The way I work them into the software design flow is just to do them regularly, with varying granularity. We do one every Friday afternoon with beers for the last 30-60 minutes of the day.
Normally we discuss whatever interests us most about the week past. But a couple of weeks ago one of the engineers suggested we do one covering the whole year, and it was great. Lots of interesting observations.
Re:Moving Django to GitHub: the postmortem
by goblin89 on Sunday April 29, 2012 @12:55AM
(#3905145)
Still arguably there's an unhappy connotation, which is better avoided in cases involving any controversy. TBH I first thought something went wrong during transition to GitHub when noticed the headline on HN.
However, I never did professional copy editing, and indeed it's a nitpick compared to the occasion. Great news and hopefully this will help Django development.
Re:Moving Django to GitHub: the postmortem
by batista on Sunday April 29, 2012 @02:24PM
(#3906592)
>It's probably my non-native English then. I didn't realize it's such a common wording, thanks for pointing out. Just sounded a bit odd.
A, no problem. I'm a non-native English speaker myself. It's so known a use that it's even in the dictionary:
Post Mortem: 2. Informal An analysis or review of a finished event.
Funny aside: in my language we have a similar half-joking phrase.
When someone asks "How did it go?" after you've done anything that you're uncertain about it's outcome (a job interview, exams, your book getting published, etc), a common answer is "The autopsy will show us".
Re:Moving Django to GitHub: the postmortem
by goblin89 on Monday April 30, 2012 @03:00AM
(#3908306)
I know that saying. Either the joke exists in several languages or we share one. =)
However, I still generally avoid using that joke with sensitive/more formal matter, preferring to err on the safe side. (Here, as well, misunderstanding might've occurred because the context was a bit less formal than I expected.)
I didn't pay much attention to dictionary references in this thread because I don't trust dictionary much when specific word's usage is in question, more relying on personal experience. Although maybe I should simply get a more extensive dictionary than what ships with OS X—the big problem with the above approach, of course, is that if I never saw a phrase used in some way, it may only mean I never had a chance to.
But Mercurial itself wasn't (although it was written mostly in Python). I think this is a good example of taking the pragmatic choice (GitHub) over the ideological choice (Bitbucket).
> Why Git/GitHub, as opposed to Mercurial/Bitbucket or some other system? Because it's very well-made, and it's where the people are.
Where the people are would imply because of the social aspects.
Both offer similar feature sets. If I want to keep my fork on Bitbucket, it's easy.
the other point of view is that there are servers that the admin has had a reasonable expectation of being able to set up and let run itself, but those servers shouldn't be pulling from anyone's svn repo anyway.
I hope the Django team can fully utilize the benefits of using github, and further decrease the resistance to contributing (through pull requests).
With this change bugs like #17144 wouldn't haunt me for months on end, because I'd just fix it.
A postmortem is what you do when you try to understand the cause of death: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmortem
</nitpick>
It's really a fantastic idea and something I fully intend to use in every capacity that makes sense going forward. It doesn't make much sense as part of the software design flow, but it absolutely could (and probably should) be a tool in any deployment protocol.
My AARs usually read pretty much like this blog post, more or less to the T, although we emphasized what we would do differently in the future more.
The way I work them into the software design flow is just to do them regularly, with varying granularity. We do one every Friday afternoon with beers for the last 30-60 minutes of the day.
Normally we discuss whatever interests us most about the week past. But a couple of weeks ago one of the engineers suggested we do one covering the whole year, and it was great. Lots of interesting observations.
"Post-mortem (disambiguation)" => "Postmortem documentation, a technical analysis of a finished project."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmortem_documentation
However, I never did professional copy editing, and indeed it's a nitpick compared to the occasion. Great news and hopefully this will help Django development.
It's a well known, and extensively used manner of speaking.
There is no controversy --nor should we aspire to avoid "all controversy" by going into laughable measures like censoring stock standard phrases.
By controversy I mean the matter of Django transition to GitHub that IIRC was a subject for discussions for a long time.
A, no problem. I'm a non-native English speaker myself. It's so known a use that it's even in the dictionary:
Post Mortem: 2. Informal An analysis or review of a finished event.
Funny aside: in my language we have a similar half-joking phrase.
When someone asks "How did it go?" after you've done anything that you're uncertain about it's outcome (a job interview, exams, your book getting published, etc), a common answer is "The autopsy will show us".
However, I still generally avoid using that joke with sensitive/more formal matter, preferring to err on the safe side. (Here, as well, misunderstanding might've occurred because the context was a bit less formal than I expected.)
I didn't pay much attention to dictionary references in this thread because I don't trust dictionary much when specific word's usage is in question, more relying on personal experience. Although maybe I should simply get a more extensive dictionary than what ships with OS X—the big problem with the above approach, of course, is that if I never saw a phrase used in some way, it may only mean I never had a chance to.
Judging from your profile info, we do not share a language, but we share a religion (our countries do, that is).