Open Source Templates
The Curious Case of the Issue and Pull Request Template
You are standing in an open field west of a white house. The house is a carefully constructed masterpiece, with solid foundations and a beautiful facade matched by an elegant interior.
Around the back of the house you see a long line of people, all of them holding little white envelopes. They seem very eager to help with the house.
There are two mailboxes here.
The first mailbox is simply labeled issues ("as if I don't have enough of my own to deal with", you think to yourself).
The second is mysteriously labeled - Pull Requests.
Both are overflowing.
You take a deep breath and open the box labeled issues.
The size of the box's interior surprises you. As you look into it, you are suddenly gripped by a feeling that the box has no bottom.
As you stare down into the seemingly bottomless pit of the box, you begin to feel a chill running down your spine. It is as if… as if the endless box of issues is staring right back into your soul.
It feels… judgy.
As you reach down into the box, you begin to realize there is a strange order to the madness. You start to notice a pattern in the issues.
Some take the form of bug reports, grey festering blobs of infinite malevolence.
Others manifest themselves as great ethereal balls of living energy in the form of ideas. Whispering half truths of promised features, improvements and changes.
You furrow your brow as you consider whether you should concentrate on one type of issue, or both.
As you pull your head out of the issues mailbox, you are startled by a voice coming from behind you.
"So… what are you?"
They are standing under a tree, each with an arm round the other’s neck, and you know which is which in a moment, because one of them has `front’ embroidered on his collar, and the other `back’.
"I'm sure I'm very sorry, but whatever do you mean?"
"There are two sides to every Schwartz," says the first. "Front end…"
"…and back end," adds his brother.
The brothers nod with understanding, give each other a knowing look and disappear into thin air.
"And that's that," says a voice from the tree above, startling you.
You look up and see a Cat grinning from ear to ear. Sensing your alarm, the Cat's grin somehow widens even more. You notice that it has very long claws and a great many teeth.
"Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?" you ask.
"That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," says the Cat. "You are either at the end of your road, or its beginning."
Your journey is complete. Your prize awaits. You are ready to return to The Hub.
You copy the contents of the ISSUE_TEMPLATE.md file, and place it in your repository.
this," you say to no one in particular.
You peer into the mailbox. Through it you see a confused looking person standing in an open field east of a white house.
Startled, you raise your right hand to your mouth, stifling a scream. You stumble back just in time to see the person through the mailbox stumble back and raise their left hand.
You regain your composure (feeling a bit silly, having just been startled by a looking glass), and approach the mailbox again.
"Now, if you'll only attend," says the person visible through the mailbox, "I'll tell you all about Looking-glass House. First, there's the house you can see through the glass—that's just the same as your house, only the things go the other way."
Looking through the mailbox, you notice that the line of people coming around the house are all carrying two envelopes. You watch as they pass by the issues mailbox, place one envelope there and proceed to the pull requests mailbox with the second.
"We only accept pull requests after the matter has been discussed thoroughly in an issue" explains the person through the mailbox.
The two of you stare at each other through the looking glass. Looking closer at your mirrored companion, you begin to notice the exhaustion on their face. It is the face of a person testing every single pull request manually.
"Are you OK?" you ask.
Your looking glass friend sighs and lowers their gaze.
"How do you test changes to your code?" they ask.
As you look more closely at the looking glass house, you begin to wonder 'how do they keep this house so tidy?'
On the tree next to the looking glass house you see a notice posted. It is hard to make out the words from this distance, but you manage to make out the big red headline saying GИITUBIЯTИOƆ.
As you gaze at the notice on the tree, you suddenly notice a huge grin hovering among the branches of the tree.
You watch as the grin widens, exposing a mouthful of sharp teeth, startling you beyond words. You squeal in terror, and slam the mailbox shut.
Feeling cold sweat running down your neck, you slowly turn around. You look up to lowest branches of the tree on your side of the looking glass where a Cat slowly fades into view, beginning with the grin, and ending with the tail.
"How are you getting on?" says the Cat, as soon as there is mouth enough for it to speak with.
Your journey is complete. Your prize awaits. You are ready to return to The Hub.
You copy the contents of the PULL_REQUEST_TEMPLATE.md file, placing it in your repository.
this," you say to no one in particular.