[avr-gcc-list] Focus of this list

[Mike Tsao]

Everyone,

This is a great list with many valuable contributors, and I don't believe
anyone has abused it since I subscribed about six months ago. The
signal-to-noise ratio is very high, which is rare and commendable for any
list.

But I am sure I'm not the only one to notice that we get many questions
having to do with the C language itself, or GCC in general, rather than this
list's topic (which I believe to be stated on the avr1.org website as being
"for anyone and everyone who is interested in building projects using the
Atmel AVR microcontroller"). It's fair to interpret this phrase as limiting
discussion to Atmel- or AVR-specific development questions, rather than
allowing any general question encountered while developing for AVR.

I really don't want to single out anyone who asked such questions recently,
and I apologize in advance to the unlucky few who do feel singled out. This
has happened on avr-gcc as long as I can remember, so singling out would be
unfair and meaningless. Moreover, the lines are gray -- most people first
encounter the "volatile" keyword when dealing with interrupts or
multithreaded code, and they also first encounter interrupts during embedded
development, so it's hard to blame someone for thinking their AVR uC or
compiler is broken because their variable won't change.

Rather than starting a flame war, may I suggest a productive way of dealing
with the problem? Will the members of the list please name similar web
resources where it's appropriate to ask general C and GCC questions? We
recently danced around this issue when discussing the scope of the proposed
AVR-GCC FAQ, but I don't recall a definite resolution. If we compiled a list
of the URLs or subscription e-mail addresses of C/GCC lists and resources,
and in the future the self-appointed regulars politely steered general
questions toward them, that could be a reasonable way to deal with the
problem.

(If anyone thinks I'm out of line, has a different proposal, or disagrees
that this is a problem at all, please let me know. Again, my intent is not
to flame or to call out specific questions; it's just a general request to
narrow the scope of discussion to the stated purpose of the list.)

--
Mike Tsao
http://www.sowbug.com/tqw/


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