This is a weird description to me. The development of the compiler happens on github. The vast majority of discussions happen on github and are entirely public (and searchable, etc.). Anyone is welcome to participate. The discussions on the github/ocaml/ocaml codebase happen on github/ocaml/ocaml, I don’t see how this is a “walled garden”.
We also have:
- Synchronous meetings for compiler maintainers to get a sense of what people are interested in working on, meeting face to face in a while, and take decisions on issues that have gotten stuck or proved too controversial to be resolved remotely. (These meetings are organized on a low-traffic mailing list that is occasionally used to discuss maintenance topics, and is private for historical reasons.)
- Two separate channels to discuss large changes with a more structured process: the RFCs repository (public, open, etc.), and more recently a Language Committee to try to make some decisions on questions that are not making progress (publicly visible but membership-restricted, following the GHC model suggested by Richard Eisenberg).
I have no idea what you have in mind when you write that “much of the discussion happens behind the scene”. My best guess as to what is going on is that people don’t realize that most of the changes in the compiler are led by two people working together on their spare time, and imagine that there must be a higher volume of discussions than what is really going on – and thus that the discussions are hidden from the public.
… and it also happens that people talk in person!
Right, these are questions I asked these people (and trefis) in-person, on a few occasions over the course of months/years, as I found @EduardoRFS’s criticism relevant and interesting. Nowadays I meet diremy and samsa1 about once a week, and lpw25 maybe once or twice a year when we happen to attend the same conference. Small-group in-person conversations are not recorded, but I do my best to post summaries when relevant – here I thought that it was important to acknowledge @EduardoRFS’ contribution to the design of modular explicits.
My best guess is that Rust caretakers talk to each other in-person from time to time, and that those discussions are typically not recorded. (For large meetings organized in advance, it is reasonable to keep minutes and share them; but in-person meetings also need unstructured get-together time to be productive, and those don’t get transcripted except via individual efforts such as the above.)
Note: I don’t think that trying to eliminate face-to-face conversations would be a very good idea. In my experience online discussions tend to get heated more quickly or get misinterpreted, and there is always a risk that people get angry at each other and it’s draining. I have seen heated discussions in-person, but much more rarely. Having social times between people working together is important in my experience, even if it is only once every few months. I suspect that an online-only project would lead to demotivation and burnout (as indeed happened in larger amount than usual during COVID lockdown).