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Meta-info: Comments?


From: Jan Atle Ramsli
Subject: Meta-info: Comments?
Date: Mon, 22 Apr 2002 12:52:34 +0200

Marcus Brinkmann wrote:
> 
> Atle:
> > I have never been part of a multi-programmer-free-software project.
> 
> Ah, ok, you probably could have improved the situation by letting us know
> about your background.

I think some mutual assumption problems have been solved here?

I, natually, make assumptions about you as you do about me - those are
the axioms without which we would never be able to ask questions!

I think I once and for all killed off the assumption that everyone reads
writes and speaks English well enough to produce any 'linguistical
finesses' :-)

You killed off the assumption that everyone knows the infrastructure of
a multi-programmer free software project.
(multi in the sense 'in parallel')

I think we also more of less killed of any assumption about technical
background.
This is the worst: When someone builds an ADT, I assume he knows what
it's called.

This is much like the old Indians, they knew the land better than
anyone, but some of them probably had no idea they were living in
'America'.

A
"What assumptions you can safely make about other Hurd programmers"
sounds like a title.

You may not assume that a Hurd programmer has the time to answer
although he/she is capable of answering.

1. Hardware
The Hurd programmers will NOT tell you how the harware works. This is
YOUR respnsibility.
Only directly Hurd-related or [Mach,L4] related questions can and will
be answered.
You may assume that Hurd programmer can tell you why and how a hardware
issue is resolved if the solution is Hurd specific. For example, you may
assume that the Hurd programmers will tell you that the concept of
'strategy/interrupt' is irrelevant.

2. Software.
You may assume that all Hurd programmers know everything necessary for
the task they are doing.
You may assume that the people 'in charge' _can_ answer any questions
you may have about the theoretical foundations for the Hurd. You may not
assume that they have the time to do it, though.
You may not assume that the lack of answer is a question of attitude,
thinking that you are not worth talking to, or anything of that nature.


B
"What assumptions Hurd programmers can safely make about people wanting
to join:"

1. You can safely assume that anyone wanting to join the Hurd project
has adequate technical backgound in everything that is not directly
related to
        Hurd itself
        Mach
        L4

If unable to answer directly like 'what does the F00F-bug do' or
similar, you may expect him/her to have acess to documentation and be
able to answer after looking it up.


1.1 Hardware
        Including, but not limited to:  i386, ATAPI/IDE, timing, ...

1.2 Software
        Including, not limited to: C, structured programming, how to find
afferent/efferent flows in a system, ADTs, how to separate between task
time and interrupt time processing.

NB: You may, however, NOT assume that everyone knows what these things
are called.
Some very capable programmers may say 'I made it that FILE thingy way'
meaning 'I implemented it as an ADT'.


C. What assumptions you can make about everyone.

You can safely assume that no-one is out to impress girls, hijack the
Hurd for any purpose, further his/her own agenda, compete agains other
Hurd programmers, lower anyone's self-esteem, talking up or down to
anyone in order to unload evil on other people, or anything of that
nature.

You can safely assume that everyone, whether looking from the inside
out, or the outside in, has only one goal:
To create software for the Good of Mankind.


We are all humans. We all make mistakes. Some answers may be right out
wrong. Some may be incomplete.
You may not assume that questions and answers are perfectly formulated.
There may be occational exceptions to the above.

Atle



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