Re: [Gnu-arch-users] Spaces in filenames ... will come soon!

[Tom Lord]

    > From: Andy Tai <address@hidden>

    > Yes, it seems the primary author of GNU Arch should be
    > the one to get the (a large portion) of this task and
    > the funding, since he probably knows Arch better than
    > anyone else... 

That's not _quite_ what I'm saying.   I certainly do like the idea of
getting paid work but:

In the long run there should be plenty to go around.  A rising tide
floats all boats and so forth.  We collectively should want an "arch
economy" not just an "arch gets Tom paid."  It's not too surprising or
at all unwelcome if arch starts to generate commercial activity for
people other than me first -- I think it's the expected case,
actually.  If it weren't for this development, my bet would have been
for first-scores coming from Europe or Australia.  (Europe because of
SuSE and Australia because of rbtcollins, that utterly tasteless C++
fan.)

On this particular issue (spaces in filenames), my concerns are:

1) It's a hard, pervasive change.   I hope they aren't underpaying 
   for it.   I hope it succeeds and in a form that doesn't force me
   to compromise the quality of arch.

2) It's a hard, pervasive change.  If they want to respect the
   upstream source, they ought to think about the impact on that
   upstream source (hey, I have to review these changes if not give
   advice about planning them or, as McKusick puts it, "piss on them
   to make them smell like [arch]" once they're done).

   When the land baron grazes his cattle on the commons, its not too
   surprising if we look at him wondering when he's going to do his 
   weighted share of turning the soil and seeding.   So to speak.
   Say, Lindows.com, did you know I'm also working on Pika?


Let's help lindows.com succeed.  Let's also help them to be good guys.
And let's not promote the success of one of us against another.

Meanwhile: the rest of you who are really getting into arch -- you
should all go find work deploying it in corporate settings! :-)
You can pay me a voluntary tax or something -- if that gets big
enough, and if you work in the US, we can formalize to the point where
you can claim an R&D tax credit for that.


By in large, people live up to your expectations.  So have good
expectations.
-t