Date: Wed, 28 Aug 1996 04:57:41 -0500 From: rkw@shark.dataplex.net (Richard Wackerbarth) To: Poul-Henning Kamp <phk@critter.tfs.com> Cc: hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Am I wrong or is this just stupid?r Message-ID: <v02140b02ae49c2fa5030@[208.2.87.4]>
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Poul-Henning Kamp <phk@critter.tfs.com> writes: >If he thinks he can make a new set of makefiles that will be much >better, he goes away and does it. as soon as he has something >that works a little bit, he sends it out as a patch, asking for >comments, and after a few cycles, unless he has made it absolutely >clear that he hasn't understood a word of it all (which I don't think >is even remotely possible in this case) his code will be adopted >with a eagerness proportional to the net improvement it brings. That concept only works when the global optimum can be reached along a downhill path. It you must "climb a mountain" to get out of the present valley, you will never take the first step. I believe that this project is just such a case. The first step is to get rid of ALL references to absolute paths, except as they become the default which is ALWAYS overridden. This step buys you absolutely no immediate reward. Neither does it break anything you are now doing. However, it is essential to prepare you to make the journey to the promised land. By analogy, if a farmer is manually hoeing his field, he might have irregular rows that take into account the local characteristics of the immediate area. To tell him that he needs to adopt a uniform spacing is, in his mind, a step backward. However, those who envision using a tractor recognize that it is a necessary step toward reaching greater profits. This is where I stand. By my own labors, I cannot rearrange the rows as fast as others are creating new ones. Unless everyone helps, we will never be prepared to move to the next step.
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