Re: How active is development?

[Chad Walstrom]

On Fri, May 24, 2002 at 12:22:26PM -0400, Joe Konecny wrote:
> No quips involved.  Here is a quote from gnuenterprise.org that made
> me look at the irq logs.  "A good deal of development and design has
> been taking place on IRC."  When I looked at these logs it was a large
> amount of banter from individuals with obviously too much time on
> their hands.  Have you ever read them or sat in on IRC?

If you're familiar with grammar, the use of "has been" is a past tense.
This does not imply "is", or present tense.  You may not be familiar
with the nature of IRC, which by design is a way to "chat" with other
people with similar interests.  People are not machines and do not talk
"on-topic" invariably, in this case design topics.  Therefore, do not
look to IRC for constant conversation about design decisions.

I would suggest that you puruse the mailing lists as well, as this is
usually less "off-topic" than an IRC chat room or log file.  You will
notice that GNUe also has a Kernel Traffic Cousin edition, which is an
EXCELLENT source of summarized information about both the IRC chat logs
and the mailing lists.

> I do however agree with you logic below, although it would seem
> typical (but not mandatory) that the rate of conversation (c) would be
> somewhat proportional to the rate of development (d).

Let me revise the statement.  The rate of "on-topic" conversation (o)
may be "somewhat proportional" to the need to resolve design issues (i).
The rate of development (d) is best measured by the rate of cvs commits
(v), but is not an authoritative measurement as coding practices of
developers differ (i.e. some commit often and early, some commit when a
portion of code is "done").  The need to resolve design issues (i) does
not necessarily reflect on the rate of development (d), thus further
separating the relationship between on-topic conversation (o) and the
rate of development (d).

All algebraic theorizing aside, the overall message is this: research or
ask (politely) if in doubt.

-- 
Chad Walstrom <address@hidden>                 | a.k.a. ^chewie
http://www.wookimus.net/                            | s.k.a. gunnarr

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