Hey Jody, all,

> 
> I am a bit confused Martin - why are we talking about this? Did the 
> sequence diagrams not work out? Or am I not understanding your suggestion?


Unfortunately, we appear to be running into some collaboration issues
that are perhaps leading to friction as the work around this effort
increases. I'll try to point the social issues I'm guessing exist;
clearing those up will hopefully get us all happily back to work.


I. We need a better shared vision of the need for this effort.
-------------------------------------------------------------

This proposal requires work on a complex module that is generally
considered functional and stable. However, the belief that the work is
needed and the expected benefits from the work are not broadly shared.
Perhaps this proposal was accepted out of faith in Jody but now, as the
work increases, this lack of shared vision is causing friction.

Looking at the proposal page:
http://docs.codehaus.org/display/GEOTOOLS/Improve+CRSAuthority
+Concurrency+Caching+and+Connection+Use
the motivation for the work is:

        Currently, GeoTools is tuned for use by a very small number of
        concurrent users. If we were to throw a thousand users at a
        single instance of a CRS Authority (FactoryOnOracleSQL, for
        example), *we can expect* the code to slow to a crawl...
                                                         {emphasis
        added}

This is an expression of faith. An alternative, perhaps naive,
understanding is that even if the referencing system is asked to produce
a large number of objects, it will only need to calculate a small number
of different original elements. The non-concurrent system then will
block often but only long enough to copy back existing objects out of
the cache, something which may not be serious as an issue. Absent a more
compelling argument such as a set of benchmarks designed to mimic a real
world situation and which *show* a performance problem, it's hard for
the community to stay focused on this work when everyone has other
things to do. 

Jody, would it be possible for you to explain better why you think this
is such critical work? Is it possible to create a simple stress testing
application which models the situation you envision and shows the
referencing slowing to a crawl? Since your work is essentially an
optimisation effort, perhaps such a set of stress tests and benchmarks
would be warranted regardless?


II. We need a better workflow.
-----------------------------

As this work progresses, it seems to be placing serious strain on
Martin. In his usual understated way, he merely emitted a quiet request
that the work be delayed for one release. From my point of view, a
better process is needed for the integration of this code.

For any change to the modules he maintains, Martin will require of
himself that he analyze and fully understand every single piece. His
review covers everything from the proper existence of svn history to
correct javadoc commenting to proper logic.

Unfortunately, the current changes are being done in a manner which is
straining Martin. He spent the weekend not just on review but also on
cleanup, for example, backing out files from svn only to re-commit them
with the history of their origin correctly integrated (svn copy not svn
add). Since Martin is under the gun his own projects, having to babysit
code he considers stable is causing strain.

Jody, perhaps we could look for a more systematic approach to
integrating this code. Surprisingly, this may even require such things
as us re-coordinating our shared strategy around our use of svn.
Similarly, it may be necessary to figure out a way to chunk the work
into bite size pieces and to find some way to schedule their integration
through Martin's review. 


III. Motivational clarification:
--------------------------------

Finally, to clarify your constraints around this effort, perhaps you
could explain your scheduling constraints: is the work *due*, if so what
is the promised *product*, does this work block future work...?

Answers to those questions might help Martin prioritize some of his own
work before reviewing yours, which might reduce the stress on him.




I hope this clarifies the non-technical issues around your work.
Hopefully, this can be sorted out quickly so everyone can get back to
this exciting summer of work.

--adrian



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