Contributing to TBB
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- General Questions about TBB
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- Contributing to TBB
Contributing to TBB
We want to ensure TBB remains a strong base for programmers to build upon, and we want to emphasize responding to users. The TBB project is committed to supporting all OSes, all processors and all compilers.
Submissions which add support for an OS, processors or compiler are of particular interest to the maintainers! Of course, all input is encouraged!
[edit] What will be Intel's role going forward?
Intel engineers will act as the maintainers of the project, and help maintain a vision and passion for parallelism. We are committed to making sure all compilers, all OSes and all processors can be support - as a cornerstone for the project. Intel is very committed to success of the project and has added more people to the project as well as committed ourselves to be responsive to inquiries and contributions.
[edit] Is there a mailing list for users or developers?
No. The TBB forum has an RSS feed, and we are going with that currently. Many think this is a better solution and we will find it adequate. Others are skeptical. Until traffic and activity increases, a slow or inactive mailing list is generally not a good idea. We’ll give this try this for a while, and see where it leads us.
[edit] How do you plan to manage the process of introducing changes made by the community to your commercial products?
We will actively review the proposed changes to the source and assess market demand for the newly proposed changes. The more a change contributes to a capability that shows high demand from our user base, the more likely we are to incorporate the change.
[edit] Do you expect to accept all input unchanged?
We hope so. When that is not the right thing for TBB, we’ll work it out with the submitter. We’ll need to review the impact of the change, and introduce changes that result in the most overall customer benefit.
[edit] What turn around do you expect on accepting changes in from the community?
We plan to regularly post new updates to the TBB source; the turnaround of a specific change will depend on the complexity of the change and the time it takes to complete each step of the review process. We’ll strive to make the process visible for the community.
[edit] What process do you expect to follow when determining whether or not to accept contributions from the Open Source community?
We will need to have an Intel contribution agreement completed (Additional legal information)
[edit] Do you have / plan to have a board of advisers?
Not at this time, however this is something we’d like to establish in the future.
[edit] When can I start contributing fixes and enhancements to TBB? How can I start doing that?
You can start contributing now. Please review the guidelines posted at threadingbuildingblocks.org for the necessary instructions and forms.
[edit] Who will decide which contributions are accepted to the TBB code base?
The final decision will rest with the maintainer (Intel).
[edit] Why do you have a contribution agreement?
The Intel contribution agreement is needed to ensure that Intel has the rights to your contributions such that it can enforce the GPL and the Intel commercial license effectively for TBB.
[edit] Do I lose any rights to my contribution under the Intel contribution agreement?
To preserve the needs of all product users, you will need to assign your copyrights to Intel, which are licensed back to you.
[edit] Why should I assign my copyrights to Intel?
So Intel has the rights to your contributions such that it can effectively enforce the GPL and the Intel commercial license for TBB.
[edit] What will Intel do with my contribution?
After successfully meeting the submission criteria, Intel will incorporate the contribution into the TBB source base.
[edit] Does this project include the “right to fork?”
Yes. But may we say “ouch!”? Forking has been called a “nuclear option.” We are committed to being excellent maintainers – translating our passion for parallelism and for helping software developers into a fantastic project. A project which is a good experience for all involved. If “forking” seems like a good idea for some reason, we hope we’ll have the chance to discuss it and work out differences. We think the industry will benefit from a single strong project.
However, we also believe that the “right to fork” is an important right. It is a “check” on the maintainers which helps bring balance. Of course, if your maintainer is evil or bad in your opinion, this “check” can be powerful.
So we believe in the “check” but we think that projects should be well maintained and, in general, not fork. Therefore, we adopted standard licenses, which include the “right to fork.” No funny little “extra” clauses saying you can’t fork. If we fail to be a good enough maintainer to build a community which does not fork – we’ll be sad and disappointed. Enough said.
We have heard one interesting idea about having an additional version: a desire to have “experimental” versions (maybe with wild features in them – “not ready for prime time” perhaps). We’re interested in hosting such on the web site as well, although it is not something which we’ve done as of July 2007. It isn’t super high on our priority list (to be perfectly honest) – but if you think this is a good idea, bring it up in a forum, and we’ll see how we can help make it happen. Someone with a passion to do this will get our help.
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