Hi all, Here are some of my thoughts about some of the issues raised today.
Normally, I try to refrain from allowing myself to write this... openly, but recent events compel me to try and address the problems head on. I tried to make the main points summarize my position, but nothing herein was composed or edited before today. It's probably a bit rough. 0) I seem to have this effect on open-source communities. Nuts. :( 0a) I am truly sorry for any resulting noise or confusion, particularly that I am about to cause by any of the following items. 0b) Brace yourself; it's not over. I could ride OpenOCD past v2.0... 0c) ...unless I am driven off. It wouldn't be the first time. ;) 1) Post patches to the list or send them to me. I can deal with them. 1a) Nothing will be lost, unless _you_ chose for it to be that way. 1b) I have fixed bit-rotten 1.5MB+ patches. Nothing here scares me. 1c) I do not need anyone with such outstanding work to 'svn up' first. 1d) Otherwise, hang on for my next message; I'll give instructions. 2) I waited two weeks. Patiently. Where were these so-called patches? 2a) My patience ended at the end of last week, and I started patching. 2b) I only ask for a measure of the same in return. I will help fix it. 2c) This is not criticism of others; I am simply stating The Way It Was. 3) I broke my patches into parts that would be easy to review and merge. 3a) Subversion has merge functions par excellence. Learn to love them. 3b) That said, I know it can suck to repeatedly deal with the process. 3c) Try keeping up with the Linux kernel. Seriously, this is nothing. 3d) The solution to avoid this is simple: send in your patches first! 4) I will not apologize for fixing real problems with the code. 4a) My changes seek to raise the standard of quality for the project. 4b) I do beg for forgiveness over anything I actually broke (see 2b). 4c) I have offered and stepped up to try to fix things that I break. 4d) If anything got broken by my changes to date (and were not a trivial typo/lapse), the code was probably fragile and needed to be revisited. 5) I only move forward, never backward; read the specs, grok the code. 5a) These changes _are_ moving things forward, if through discussion. 5b) The J-Link driver will be fixed with this push, either by myself or others that are activity considering the now fresh and clean code. 5c) I will help ensure that others' changes keep moving forward too. 5d) I believe my reposting the FTD2XX high-speed patch attests to that. 6) I will not endorse locking the repository, not even advisory. 6a) That actually eliminates the pressure to push patches to the tree. 6b) Locks make it virtually impossible to perform systematic tree-wide maintenance without taking locks on every file (serializing the group). 6c) This policy kept me from contributing anything for almost two weeks, as I waited for others to finish their work and "unlock" the tree. 6d) How would they be doled out? Round-robin? How many others will not bother to stick to waiting to see if they get a chance at the locks? 6e) J-Link might be working by now, if the group had started accepting my patches and made others with work-in-progress deal with the merges. 7) This is nothing personal; I know it's hard not to take it that way. 7a) I am volunteering my time and services; I want this to be fun. 7b) Please hang in there for a while longer; I'll try to make it good. 8) I have wasted man-months of my life dealing with these problems... 8a) ...in each of the many different groups with which I try to work. 8b) It somewhat appears to be my lot in life to do so. So it shall be. 8c) I try to win/lose these battles with my sharply written points... 8d) ...even if they factor directly into why I find myself in word-wars. 8e) You'd almost think that I enjoy to write; I truly prefer to code. I hope that I have covered most of the points raised today, and I am eager to now return my focus to more technical matters. Next, I will send a revised list of tasks that I know are outstanding in the project, in the hope that it will further help us address this situation fully. Sincerely, Zach Welch Corvallis, OR P.S. I have this sneaking sensation that this may be one of those e-mails I live to regret, but I would regret not sending it even more. _______________________________________________ Openocd-development mailing list Openocd-development@lists.berlios.de https://lists.berlios.de/mailman/listinfo/openocd-development
