Re: [Help-gnunet] Major problems on RH7.2

[Christian Grothoff]

On Monday 22 April 2002 03:24 pm, you wrote:
>
> (both use same version of openssl, btw)... I'll try to get the
> other node upgraded to the same rh/gcc version and see what happens
> then. If it starts working, I'll let you know that gcc2.96-98
> is to be avoided.

Could be. You may also want to try to play with compiler options. Sometimes 
the right optimization level can do wonders. Or it may be OpenSSL, or a bug 
in our code, really hard to tell. If you can demonstrate that the same code 
works fine with compiler X but not with compiler Y, please tell me and I'll 
document that problem.

> BTW, the nodes seemed not to communicate with any other
> nodes than each other (none given by "updatehosts" seem
> to respond?), so basically the whole network seems
> unoperational.

Eh, not quite. I just accidentially killed the script that generates the 
hosts.tar.gz-tarball. There have been over 270 hosts online so far, and even 
usually a couple at a time recently. Check out
http://gecko.cs.purdue.edu/GNUnet/hosts/ to see the last time at which a host
was seen online...

> Perhaps the main point of this yarn is the following:
> (*if* gnunet is to gain even a small loyal fanbase required
> for attempting greater glory)
>
> a) "contrib/updatehosts" should at any time supply
> atleast a couple of responding nodes. This is very
> important.
> b) doc should include notes of which compiler versions
> are known to work and which to avoid.

Well, if we can find out, sure. It's just pretty hard to be 100% certain that 
it is the compiler and to know which versions... ;-)

> c) i stress it again that the system should work
> out-of-box on popular distributions.

Agreed. OTOH, we're not quite there yet. That's why it's called a beta. I 
absolutely concur with you that there is a lot to be done (and there will 
probably be a big push after the semester is over, most developers have a 
life, too :-)

> It is just that an average user (who might even have
> a big pipe) probably is not going to give gnunet
> too many chances. If there is no base network supplying
> perhaps GPL and a couple of funny pictures on the
> first attempt, the user will probably not leave
> the node running.

True. For the average user, we'll also need a port to Win32, probably a nice 
GUI to insert content, etc, etc. We're not trying to replace napster/gnutella 
*right now*, we made the code available such that people can give us ideas 
and/or help. 

> Also, when the basic operationality seems to be
> there, a bit work on the meta stuff should be
> necessary. I mean that there should be some
> lists of known keys/keywords (perhaps pointing to
> politically correct public domain material,
> something to experiment downloading on). Also the
> keyword extraction should probably be automatic
> and/or output keywords in some standardized
> convention. Also case-sensitivity will probably
> be a problem.

These have all been discussed on the developer mailinglist and are in the 
pipe.

> From the viewpoint of "real problems" these all
> are ofcourse trivial, but they make a big difference
> to anyone attempting to actually use the system,
> and such little things may even determine if
> it catches on or not.

True. Again, thanks for your remarks, but please don't expect wonders, it'll 
take a bit time to get there.

Christian
-- 
______________________________________________________
|Christian Grothoff                                  |
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