On Thu, 7 Feb 2002, Ely Levy wrote:
> he actualy is,
> but he is more control freak than anything else.
> one person deciding all about the kernel..
> no one knows everything well enough to do it
> certanly not him..
>
I have to disagree here. I know that Linus is the ultimate authority on
what goes into the Linus' kernel and what stays out. I also know there are
several other trees floating around. I think someone has to decide what
goes in and stay out of there, and it might as well be him.
When one is working on any software project with a large codebase, there
should be an architect who decides what features or re-factorings will be
done and when. One of my OS programming rules states that "The number of
items on a project's to-do list always grows or remains constant." One
cannot put everything possible in the Linux kernel at the same time, and
survive to tell the tale, you have to say something like: ReiserFS in, kdb
out, asynchronous IO - never, feature X - will be postponed to the 2.7.x
development tree.
I'm not entirely happy with all of Linus' technical decisions regarding
the kernel, but someone has to be the kernel architect. Using a source
control system enables having the rejected or temporarily rejected patches
in a separate branch, which helps making sure that maintaining a common
codebase is not a hopeless situation.
I'm not sure if it's a very good analogy, but I also have to make
decisions on what goes in and stays out of the current Freecell Solver
development tree. I sometimes get feedback from other people (usually
power users or those who look or use the code) that a certain feature
should be implemented before the rest. But the final decision is mine.
It could be a bad analogy because it's a much smaller code base than the
Linux kernel or similar projects, and I'm practically the only one who
modifies the code. Incidently I don't use a source control system but
rather keep an archive for every version. I'd like to start using CVS,
though, but it's not critical IMO, because of the reasons states above.
Regards,
Shlomi Fish
>
> Ely Levy
> System group
> Hebrew University
> Jerusalem Israel
>
>
>
> On Wed, 6 Feb 2002, Shlomi Fish wrote:
>
> > On 6 Feb 2002, Oleg Goldshmidt wrote:
> >
> > >
> > > Well, it seems that The Great Kernel CVS Mutiny led Linus to
> > > BitKeeper...
> > >
> > > http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/02/06/1341250&mode=thread
> > >
> >
> > I should add that by "CVS" I meant any decent source control system and
> > BitKeepter seems to fit this description. This is definitely good news. I
> > don't know what role my post played in Linus' decision, though.
> >
> > The point of the mutiny was that people should have abandoned the original
> > way of maintaining the patches, regardless of Linus' approval. But now
> > that he uses it himself, there isn't much point in it. It's good to know
> > Linus is not as senseless and stubborn as I believed he was, originally.
> >
> > I discovered other things I don't like about the waythe kernel was
> > maintained since the original mutiny call, but they are relatively minor
> > in comparison to using a source control system.
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > Shlomi Fish
> >
> > There is no IGLU Cabal! They had to maintain a codebase the size of the
> > Linux kernel, and could not use a source control because the project
> > leader was religiously opposed to it. This caused disorder and confusion,
> > and nobody thought of starting "The Great IGLU Cabal CVS Mutiny".
> >
> > > --
> > > Oleg Goldshmidt | [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > > "If it ain't broken, it has not got enough features yet."
> > >
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> >
> >
> > ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> > 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..."
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> >
> >
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----------------------------------------------------------------------
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?"
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