Re: [Qemu-devel] [5083] PPC: Switch a few instructions to TCG

[J. Mayer]

On Mon, 2008-08-25 at 01:27 +0200, Andreas Färber wrote:
> Am 25.08.2008 um 00:08 schrieb J. Mayer:
> 
> > On Sun, 2008-08-24 at 19:05 +0000, Aurelien Jarno wrote:
> >> Revision: 5083
> >>          http://svn.sv.gnu.org/viewvc/?view=rev&root=qemu&revision=5083
> >> Author:   aurel32
> >> Date:     2008-08-24 19:05:35 +0000 (Sun, 24 Aug 2008)
> >>
> >> Log Message:
> >> -----------
> >> PPC: Switch a few instructions to TCG
> >
> > It seems like you forgot to consider that I might be working on this
> > subject, as I announced here last month and care if you break my  
> > work in
> > any way.
> > Then, you also "forgot" to wait for the fixes needed to address
> > regression that have been introduced by previous inconsidered  
> > commits in
> > PowerPC emulation: I also said that this was the _first thing_ to be
> > done before anything else in PowePC code.
> > Then, I can be sure that you "forgot" to test if your patch breaks any
> > PowerPC targets, as some do not run now...
> 
> Excuse me, I have not been able to run Linux on a single ppc target  
> within the last _year_. Something is severely broken all that time,  
> not just now.
> 
> > Last but not least, you also "forgot" to submit your patch, wait for
> > comments, reviews, tests...
> >
> > All this is unacceptable;
> 
> As reported by René some months ago, you submitted a binary OHW update  
> (r3309) but neither updated the source on your website nor QEMU's diff  
> against it. Probably you just forgot, but don't be so harsh to others  
> then. It's good to see that someone still cares about the PowerPC  
> targets at all! Apart from Laurent, no one cared to review his OHW  
> patch since then (not even complaining that it's whitespace-damaged).  
> Nor did anyone complain that the PowerPC 'patch' by Salvatore was no  
> patch at all but a gzipped tarball of apparently modified 0.9.1 source  
> files - not yet reviewed at all this month.
> 
> Last month you actually said you were *planning* to port Alpha and  
> PowerPC, with Alpha first, but had no time and reference hardware -  
> your last commit is over half a year ago, so since there were no Alpha  
> commits no one would expect you to work on PowerPC already given your  
> statement. Most conversions to TCG (including the original  
> introduction) were done without testing periods, step-by-step on  
> trunk. Please don't fight over who's code gets committed, rather  
> combine your efforts to get ppc usable again. If you'd post a link to  
> your branch with work-in-progress like malc does that might help keep  
> collisions low.
> 
> Thanks,
> Andreas


On Mon, 2008-08-25 at 12:33 +0200, Johannes Schindelin wrote:

> It seems you are in exactly the same self-destructive,
insulting-others 
> phase as I was a few weeks ago.
> 
> Please keep in mind: not only have you not notified anybody of your 
> progress, thereby _asking_ for somebody else to step in, but you also 
> leave a public record of being an asshole.  And the worst: you do not
help 
> your soul to get better.
> 
> In this situation, it helped me to consult someone.  Maybe this would
help 
> you, too.
> 
> Ciao,
> Dscho "who has been there, and has done that"

Sorry if I only give one answer for everybody. And sorry it might be
long and sounds like unnedeed noise.

I don't think I've been insulting anyone here or missing respect to
anyone.
Just as a reminder, everyone who has commit writes in Qemu repository
agreed, to be accepted as a commiter, to respect one and only one rule:
one can do whatever he wants in the code he take the responsability to
maintain but shall never commit in any other place without the explicit
agreement of all maintainers that might be affected by the changes.
Then, I feel perfectly right not being happy when random untested
patches are commited in this code.
And to be completelly honnest, my deep thought is that someone that is
not able to respect this simple rule should never have write access to
any repository.

The argument "I have not able to run the PowerPC target for at least a
year" is fallacious, for at least 2 reasons. The first one is that there
was successes reported to run those target during this time (and I've
also been able to do so). I can admit I did not check the current
repository and I know that embedded targets have already been broken;
but if it is broken, and this is the second reason, the only thing to do
is repair _before_ anything else can happen. Saying "it's broken" as an
excuse to commit untested patches is never acceptable; it seems to me
that anyone who do a commits is responsible  and supposed to get sure
that he won't break anything, then be ready to repair if it does, depite
the care that has been taken to test as many cases as possible.

Then, I don't understand why some are talking about OHW here, which
seems to be completelly out of the scope of Qemu development. Let me be
more precise. First, the changes that is being talked about was
requested by Qemu users and at that time I did explain here, on this
list, what was in the patch I did and why I won't release a new version
of OHW just for this patch (just relaxing some IDE status checks to
avoid error cases triggered by some Qemu IDE implementation changes).
Second, OHW is an independant project. It is provided as a helper for
some PowerPC targets, even not for all, it has been successfully
replaced by some proprietary firmwares (not only once) and everyone is
free to use any other firmware he wants to boot a PowerPC target  (and I
know some do) or even fix the emulator so firmware from mass-market
machines would run on Qemu (which is not far from being possible).

Now a simple question: if Qemu developpers really think I'm a "asshole",
if  all I do here is just insulting other developpers, and/or am not
able to maintain the PowerPC code, then I don't understand why they
never asked the project leaders to bannish me and looked for someone
else who would fit the job ?

Finally, the only thing I feel you all are right is that I never talk a
lot about what's going on in my work here and even less commit any of my
patches. Then I understand that most of you consider the PowerPC targets
as unmaintained.

For this reason, also to stop poluting the list, and to stop being the
"asshole" who prevents anyone of you to improve Qemu the way you want, I
now resign.

I will just do one last commit, in order to remove my name from the
maintainer list; then I won't disturb you anymore again.

Please then cancel my commit rights and remove my mail from the mailing
list.

As a conclusion, everyone is free to do all changes he wants in PowerPC
& Alpha code, which are now officially unmaintained.

Aurelien, you might now want to push your patches again, as all mines
now have a garbage status...


Thanks for this great project, have good luck and a lot of fun.



PS: and please don't worry, whatever one might think, I feel absolutelly
OK with my soul and conscience.

(and please, don't reply to this, you would just increase the pollution
level, what is never needed here, and you can be sure I won't reply
anymore, nor here nor by private mail).

-- 
J. Mayer <address@hidden>
Never organized