On Thu, 27 Aug 2020 13:42:37 -0400
Drew DeVault [off-list ref] wrote:

This document is a bit intimidating to new patch submitters, and this
change streamlines it a bit. We presume git usage, because it's much
easier to use and most devs coming at the kernel are likely to be
familiar with it.

I've also added a couple of links to third-party resources which I have
built, namely the following:

https://git-send-email.io
https://useplaintext.email

I additionally removed information designed for subsystem and branch
maintainers, as it's unlikely to be useful for a first-time contributor.
Perhaps this documentation should be moved elsewhere?
---
 Documentation/process/submitting-patches.rst | 169 +++++--------------
 1 file changed, 40 insertions(+), 129 deletions(-)

So I am absolutely sympathetic with the idea of simplifying this
document... you should have seen it before the last pass I made.  I think
we want a number of these changes, but I do have some requests.

- Assuming use of Git makes sense to me; I don't think we need to be
  suggesting (or documenting) creating patches by hand at this point.  So
  that's all good.

- We have a document on configuring email clients for use in kernel
  development; we should be pointing there rather than to outside sites.
  There might well be a place for a pointer to useplaintext.email in
  Documentation/process/email-clients.rst, but that's a separate patch.

- In general we've been removing manual section numbers for the reasons
  amply demonstrated in this patch; maintaining them is a pain and, once
  you've gone through and changed them all, referring to sections by
  number doesn't work as well anymore.  My own feeling is that they should
  come out.

- Please don't just remove maintainer information like that.  If it needs
  a new home, fine, find a new home for it.  We have a nascent maintainers
  manual that could certainly use some help.

- Please split your work into multiple, single-purpose patches so that
  they can be reviewed more easily.

Thanks,

jon