Re: CFD: XMLification of NOTES

From: Kris Kennaway (kris_at_obsecurity.org)
Date: 03/31/04

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    Date: Tue, 30 Mar 2004 22:07:23 -0800
To: Poul-Henning Kamp <phk@phk.freebsd.dk>

    On Wed, Mar 31, 2004 at 07:48:04AM +0200, Poul-Henning Kamp wrote:
    > In message <20040331054419.GA44221@xor.obsecurity.org>, Kris Kennaway writes:
    >
    >
    > >Don't change the topic. XML is not required for any of that, and
    > >someone could just as easily write those tools without it. Similarly,
    > >it's just as wrong to assume that changing to XML will magically cause
    > >all these tools to appear.
    >
    > It is true that XML is not required, but XML is the format chosen
    > by the developer who has actually spent time on this, so I don't
    > think you have a particularly strong voice to critize his choice
    > unless you plan to spend your own time working on this issue.
    >
    > Why the f**k are we so quick to shoot our own developers in the
    > back in this project ?

    Alexey's email did not mention the existence of a prototype
    implementation, only possibilities for future work. Go back to my
    previous response to him, where I pointed out that extraordinary
    claims require extraordinary proof, and if he wants people to accept
    the initial step he needs to also provide a sufficiently good proof of
    concept to justify the pain of transition and maintenance.

    For example, I'd love a kernel dependency checker -- you may not be
    aware that I spend a lot of time answering support emails from people
    who didn't read the comments in NOTES or GENERIC about required
    dependencies of things like umass (that one comes up on questions@ at
    least once a week).

    It's the "if you build it, they will come" that I don't like: as you
    well know, FreeBSD does not have a good history with people making
    partial architectural changes under the assumption that someone else
    will finish the job later. If Alexey carries this to completion and
    comes up with a useful, usable set of tools, I think that's great!

    Kris

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