Date: Wed, 13 Jun 2012 22:32:08 -0800 From: Royce Williams <royce.williams@gmail.com> To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Solving the great resource problem, take 42 (Re: Upcoming release schedule - 8.4 ?) Message-ID: <CA%2BE3k90dKSvNmJ-tipq3-tdmj_CW3aSmW1TUTyQX_9tpEjagJg@mail.gmail.com> In-Reply-To: <CAGH67wT-XLNiwMzADhNtsEAEYFOqWKxAqfLVCiirjJDdBKrrcQ@mail.gmail.com> References: <CAGH67wT-XLNiwMzADhNtsEAEYFOqWKxAqfLVCiirjJDdBKrrcQ@mail.gmail.com>
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Resending to list, forgot to hit reply-all.
On Wed, Jun 13, 2012 at 10:06 PM, Garrett Cooper <yanegomi@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Wed, Jun 13, 2012 at 10:25 PM, Royce Williams
> <royce.williams@gmail.com> wrote:
>> On Wed, Jun 13, 2012 at 8:30 PM, Adrian Chadd <adrian@freebsd.org> wrote:
>>> On 13 June 2012 21:26, Mark Linimon <linimon@lonesome.com> wrote:
>>>> On Wed, Jun 13, 2012 at 08:50:24AM -0700, Garrett Cooper wrote:
>>>>> The only way that this would really work is if there were dedicated
>>>>> sustaining engineers working on actively backporting code, testing it,
>>>>> committing it, etc.
[snip]
>> Ah, but you can get the same effect by freeing up those engineers to
>> work on the hard stuff.
>>
>> This is my usual soapbox (see [1], [2]): Push more of the mundane
>> work out to the edges, so that the developers can focus more on the
>> core (like more releases/features/testing/projects).
[my wishlist snipped]
> No offense, but speaking from experience, these are referred to as
> "wishlist projects" -- many of which get shelved until developers get
> enough time to work on them. This makes more sense when there are more
> resources so engineers can work in a less distracted manner as BSD is
> not Linux as far as BSD's design stratagem is concerned .
Catch-22. This honestly reads as "we can't stop for gas, we're
already late." :-) I should have been more clear that I understand
that this would require someone to step away from the firehose of work
that not having such tools perpetuates.
I certainly understand that it requires an effort of will to raise
one's head high enough out of the lists/PRs/email swamp long enough,
shake off some learned helplessness, and be inspired to tackle one of
them. I struggle with that daily myself.
There's a "Not Invented Here" comic strip that is quite applicable:
http://notinventedhe.re/on/2010-3-8
[good Garrett summary of the resource problem snipped]
> So, rather than do things this way by posting wishlist projects that
> won't happen in the immediate future, why not make developers' lives
> easier by spreading the load, increasing the domain knowledge in one
> or more areas, and improving the community in the meantime? Affected
> companies/the Foundation should have more than enough funds to devote
> towards a handful of staff to make this a reality, even if the
> position is part-time. Remember: low hanging fruit -> more likely to
> succeed -> quicker/better RoI results.
Even one item from my wish list would lower the branches so that more
people could reach the fruit. :-)
The objections you're raising to my wish list could have been used, in
the past, to justify anything from not writing send-pr (which was
somewhat low-hanging fruit) to not writing freebsd-update (decidedly
less trivial).
Not all of my wishlist items require Herculean effort to make progress
on. They just require someone who can both code, and see the light at
the end of the tunnel that such a project would reveal.
It's the never-ending chronic pain and "whack-a-mole" game of
troubleshooting that makes us frame these things as wishes. If we
take as an assumption that they're within reach, they might be.
It calls to mind the last lines of Say Anything (if I may indulge my
John Cusack fanboyhood):
Diane Court: Nobody thinks it will work, do they?
Lloyd Dobler: No. You just described every great success story.
Royce
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