Re: [Gnu-arch-users] Arch Cache & cached archives

[Tom Lord]

    > From: address@hidden (James Blackwell)

    > Tom Lord:
    > > Have you noticed, incidently, that free software and (shudder) "open
    > > source" browswers make greater and greater progress in the market the
    > > more they (fairly recently) concentrate on slimming down?

    > I've seen quite the opposite, myself. As free software has grown, it has
    > done so by adding features. 

That's roughly true and a more thorough analysis will show you both
why that is and why it is a (very) finite strategy.

    > If you compare mozilla's features over the last year with the
    > number of mozilla's usage growth over the last year, I believe
    > you'll find a one to one relationship.  Its by adding in popular
    > features like ad blocking, tabbing, calendaring, theming, etc
    > that made mozilla popular.

Look closer at what's got good momentum and why.   

Browser projects are at a particular disadvantage because of the
consistent bungling of W3C.   (What was that someone said about the
lack of need for glacially slow and contentious orgs like IETF?)

Geeze.... at heart it's a few transports and a viewer for structured
text.  How did we get from there to the hopelessly tangled mess we
face?  Surely the Chief Twits didn't have any influence over that,
right?

    > But there *is* a difference between today and the late nineties. In the
    > old days, features were added haphazardly without any sort of regard to
    > whether or not they served any purpose or provided any actual
    > benefit.

Yes, and, oddly enough, I find myself trying to beat back such trends
in arch.  How tedious.

    > Aaron's patch is a great example of the new way. 

You mean the caching patch that he, because he has a better grasp than
you on both the bigger picture and the limitations of his perspective,
is now thinking deeper about?

    > I only glanced over the rest of your email. You'll have to do better
    > at communicating effectively if you want me to spend time on it.

There's only so many times I can hint to you that your reach exceeds
your grasp at the moment.  *Please* try to separate your palbapble
hatred of me from your contributions to arch.

-t