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this post was submitted on 28 Sep 2023
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I never really used IRC, but in my experience contributing to projects which use mailing lists is very easy - you just send a mail with some code.
Of course you could use git-send-email, and you could create diffs and patches, but I actually think for a new contributor the mailing list workflow is the simplest since it doesn’t actually require knowledge of the various tools experienced developers use.
I write this from personal experience BTW - the first projects I contributed to used mailing lists, which allowed me to contribute even as a self taught programmer who had no experience with any VCS yet.
Do you find mailing lists easier to use than pull requests / merge requests? And how do you find following a discussion in a mailing list?
For newer/inexperienced users mailing lists are definitely easier. Everyone can send an email.
I don't agree. Any conversation on pull requests happens through issues/tickets, which already aggregate all related events and are trivially referenced through their permanent links, including through the Git repo's history.
From a contributor point of view, mailing lists are definitely easier than pull/merge requests - you just send a patch which you can create in any way you want to an email address.
Following a discussion is easy - it’s just a list of messages. In fact, it is easier for me since I use Gnus as my email client, which gives me a threaded view of discussions on the list.