Date: Fri, 17 Aug 2001 12:52:20 +0200 From: Bernd Walter <ticso@mail.cicely.de> To: Peter Wemm <peter@wemm.org> Cc: Wilko Bulte <wkb@freebie.xs4all.nl>, "David O'Brien" <obrien@FreeBSD.ORG>, alpha@FreeBSD.ORG, developers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: dropping compiler support in -current Message-ID: <20010817125220.A29953@cicely20.cicely.de> In-Reply-To: <20010817081147.DCEEA3811@overcee.netplex.com.au>; from peter@wemm.org on Fri, Aug 17, 2001 at 01:11:47AM -0700 References: <20010817081929.A2859@freebie.xs4all.nl> <20010817081147.DCEEA3811@overcee.netplex.com.au>
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On Fri, Aug 17, 2001 at 01:11:47AM -0700, Peter Wemm wrote: > Lets go over a couple of key things.. > > - Whether we like it or not, i386 is our reference platform. By definition > there is going to be a general trend of i386 things happening first and the > other platforms catching up. Yes, we can make effort to minimize this, but > realistically, it is going to happen to some degree. Yes, this is > i386-centric, yes it sucks, but sheer inertia will keep it happening. This > is leading to the true measure of the viability of a port to platform X - > ie: Are there sufficient people using that platform who are prepared to > dive in and help keep that platform up to date with i386? Are there enough > people with sufficient knowledge to dive in when hairy problems turn up? > and so on. Yelling at a committer because they did something for x86 > and forgot platform X does not achieve much except cause wear and tear. > Things will get done much more effectively if people help rather than > criticize. Yes, we have some fearless souls who slog through this > stuff, but they cannot do everything. I wasn't aware that alpha and -current is still such a big problem. I asumed that most recent problems are SMP specific. In fact my -current alphas are running great: ticso@cicely10> uname -a FreeBSD cicely10.cicely.de 5.0-CURRENT FreeBSD 5.0-CURRENT #1: Mon Apr 2 23:56:44 CEST 2001 ticso@cicely9.cicely.de:/var/d8/src-2001-03-28/src/sys/compile/CICELY10 alpha ticso@cicely10> uptime 10:07AM up 103 days, 21:04, 2 users, load averages: 0.07, 0.02, 0.01 ticso@cicely9> uname -a FreeBSD cicely9.cicely.de 5.0-CURRENT FreeBSD 5.0-CURRENT #0: Fri Mar 30 18:42:31 CEST 2001 ticso@cicely9.cicely.de:/var/d8/src-2001-03-28/src/sys/compile/CICELY9 alpha ticso@cicely9> uptime 12:28PM up 104 days, 12:55, 12 users, load averages: 0.00, 0.01, 0.00 Well as you can see I don't have spend much time to keep them recent. Which is bad for detecting and possibly fixing recent problems. > - Also, platforms die sooner or later. Eventually there will not be enough > willpower to keep the platform up to date. I dont think FreeBSD/Alpha is > there yet. I dont think anybody should be prepared to call a 'time of death' > on the alpha port unless we get to RELENG_5 without a functional system. cvsup.de.freebsd.org is running on alpha and I'm all for keeping it. > - David is annoyed because he cannot test his gcc / toolchain work adequately > on the alpha right now. Maybe we should be offloading that from him > so that he doesn't have to worry so much about it? I would not blame > David in the slightest for saying "ok, here is what I think is needed > for the alpha as best as I can tell, you're on your own - let me know how > it went". And then have somebody else tidy up the loose ends. If I understood right all what David needs is a more stable platform. In fact most alpha owners stayed with a working version - including myself. What we really need are more knowledged alpha users of recent -current. -- B.Walter COSMO-Project http://www.cosmo-project.de ticso@cicely.de Usergroup info@cosmo-project.de To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-alpha" in the body of the message
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