Date: Fri, 21 Jul 2000 14:53:55 +0200 From: Sheldon Hearn <sheldonh@uunet.co.za> To: Robin Carey <bsc4093@dcs.napier.ac.uk> Cc: Brooks Davis <brooks@one-eyed-alien.net>, bugs@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: FBSD-4.0/pcm driver Message-ID: <86949.964184035@axl.ops.uunet.co.za> In-Reply-To: Your message of "Fri, 21 Jul 2000 13:14:39 %2B0100." <Pine.SO4.4.01.10007211305311.16872-100000@artemis>
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On Fri, 21 Jul 2000 13:14:39 +0100, Robin Carey wrote: > Ok Mr Oracle of traditional BSD development knowledge - why should I > bother to "help out" when I've submitted numerous suggestions to FreeBSD > in the recent past, and nobody replies ? Hardly an oracle; I've only been doing this for a few years. :-) The problem of poor responsiveness is an old one for FreeBSD. I'd say that things are improving, though. More committers are taking the PR database seriously. Also, we're developing a body of committers with a sufficiently large cross-section of interests within the project to ensure that most problems get some attention. > And as far as supplying a "fix" to a problem goes - the last time I did > that (a while ago) someone replied to the effect of: Incorporated with > "style changes". So I've pretty much come to the conclusion that its not > worth supplying a "fix" cos "they" won't like my style ! The issue of style is important, but often misunderstood by folks who don't fully understand the development model that we use. When you have a large number of developers making changes to a body of source code, it is critical that some or other commonly accepted style is employed. Failure to adopt such a standard results in code which is very difficult to read. For FreeBSD, most of the style guidelines are provided in the style(9) manual page. > Hmmm well maybe I'll just go somewhere else where there is a more open and > communicative environment. Or maybe I'll just start my own O/S development > project. If FreeBSD suits some need of yours and you would like to see it improve, then you'll naturally find yourself wanting to help out in improving it. If you find that helping out is too much of an effort, or the process involved in making improvements doesn't suit your taste, then you're free to choose some other project to support. You're even free not to support any project at all. Many people use FreeBSD with great success without ever contributing anything back. The FreeBSD project welcomes such use, but we do ask that such folks keep their complaints to themselves, since there simply isn't the manpower to turn pure complaints into improvements. That's the beauty of the situation. :-) So as I said, if you'd like to help out, please do so. However, be aware that nobody's going to want to listen if you limit your contributions to negative criticisms that don't offer any possible solutions. On the other hand, positive contributions that someone could easily pick up and run with are always welcome. Ciao, Sheldon. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-bugs" in the body of the message
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