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Please refer to the following lecture, which talks about the engineering of Win2K: http://www.usenix.org/events/usenix-win2000/invitedtalks/lucovsky_html/ I spotted the link thru a post Chen made to Hackers-IL, and it also appeared on the Joel-on-software site somewhat later. The Win2K codebase is even larger than Linux is (due to the fact that Win2K is something like the Linux kernel, glibc, X-Windows, Gtk+, and some other stuff all combined in a big mish-mash). Nonetheless, it does show how a team of programmers was able to grok a very large codebase. I believe that the way things are done in the kernel development have to change in many ways to make its maintainance more scalable and straightforward. There should be: 1. CVS. 2. Roadmaps for the next stable release - what goes in, what stays out, etc. 3. A general, short, manifesto that explains what Linus thinks the kernel should have and what not. (I.e: should it have a sound subsystem? Should it have GGI? Should it have an in-kernel GUI?). Just kidding about the GUI part. 4. Maintainers of different subsystems who may delegate authority to other people. 5. Making sure Linus need not be bothered with any little patch. Linus can read the CVS diffs if he'd like, but people can commit changes without asking him. 6. Defining well-defined interfaces for the subsystems to interact with each other, and explaining what should or should not be done. Did I miss anything? I believe what I proposed is better than the ways things are done now. Of course I recall the first rule of open-source programming: "Don't whine unless you are going to contribute". Which means that unless I'm going to act as a new and better Linus myself (at least until Linus OKs my suggestions), then I can't complain much. Maybe I'll join the lkml and try to change the system from within. (of course, I think I'll need to ask Orr Dunkelman for a dedicated account for that on vipe, because lkml happens to be quite high volume). Regards, Shlomi Fish ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Shlomi Fish [EMAIL PROTECTED] Home Page: http://t2.technion.ac.il/~shlomif/ Home E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] "Let's suppose you have a table with 2^n cups..." "Wait a second - is n a natural number?" ================================================================= To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word "unsubscribe" in the message body, e.g., run the command echo unsubscribe | mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
