>> I have never seen a project that needs to be forked as badly as this 
>> one.  You sit around and nit pick about about which dinner glasses to 
>> pour the water into.  Somebody shows up with a firetruck wanting to fill 
>> the swimming pool and you can't handle it.
>>
>> This firetruck ain't waiting.
>>     
>
> Okay, Mr. Firetruck.  Put up or shut up.  What is so wrong with this
> community that it needs to be forked?  Give us your manifesto.  The
> soapbox is ready for you to shout it out to the masses.
>
> I will then try to address each issue that you have in turn.  I have
> been where you are standing, and I am sure that I can withstand any
> flame you bring at me or this community.
>
> That goes for anyone else that is thinking the same thoughts.  Vent it.
> It will feel good, and maybe we can move forward.  Forks should be the
> last resort of the exiled or oppressed.  You are not the former, and you
> need to make a solid case for the later.
>
>   
>> BTW, the reason this patch was submitted as one is that it cannot be 
>> separated.  The system won't work with the reduced tms_seq clocks.  When 
>> does trust enter into this?
>>     
>
> Yes, it could be separated.  I could do it myself, but I have my own
> list of tasks.  My response was based on community standards with which
> you apparently do not agree.  That is fine.  I was not imposing them,
> rather providing my opinion.  A strong opinion to be sure, so what?
>
> Again, I did not deny the patch; I deferring it to others guidance,
> because it touches key elements of the system.  I am trusting other
> maintainers that have more experience to judge its correctness, because
> it is bigger than I can get my head around.  They can chose to ignore or
> accept my opinion about it.
>   

Zach,

You are not, at least not yet,  a poster boy for what is wrong with this 
project.  So I apologize to you personally that I was not precisely 
clear that my anger and frustration is with the project and not with 
you.  You were doing your job as you have seen it done before, and as 
you understand it.

You asked to try and understand my point of view. I thank you for that.

In a nutshell, the project policies make it too expensive for me to 
continue to contribute.  It is about money, which comes from the 
expenditure of wasted time.

It is that simple.



More elaboration on my points of view:


1) Qualified development expertise is expensive.  It is not free.


2) Not all development contribution sources, i.e. individuals, are 
equally qualified.


3) Any use of the linux kernel project as a role model for this project 
is frought with self peril because the linux kernel project is a funded 
project where developers get salaries and can afford to erect safety 
barriers to progress.  It is about money.  They can afford procedures 
and policies, which if adopted by this project, would needlessly impede 
progress.  You may want to impede progress, I do not.  Perhaps someday 
there will be an openocd foundation with a corporate financial payroll, 
and this may be the only part of the linux kernel project that should be 
aspired to until there is funding.  Until then it is prudent to realize 
that beggars cannot be so choosy.


4) The software being developed by this project is no where near 
satisfactory.  The stuff barely works.  It is no where near what it 
could and might be someday.  The driver I spent a week on was basically 
garbage before I started.  If this project was where it could be, there 
would literally be NO commercial alternatives.   e.g. Samba basically 
put Novell out of the networking business.  Openocd is not putting folks 
out of business.


***************************

Finally, back to the metaphor, because it will also help clarify:

"You sit around and nit pick about about which dinner glasses to 
pour the water into.  Somebody shows up with a firetruck wanting to fill 
the swimming pool and you can't handle it.

This firetruck ain't waiting."


A) The dinner guests are swaggering about the kitchen, arguing about what 
dinner glasses to use for the water.

B) The firetruck pulls up to the street out front, hoping to fill the swimming 
pool.

C) The guests all run out of the kitchen on to the street to look at the 
firetruck, in astonishment.

D) They don't even know they have a swimming pool.  This is the saddest part of 
the entire story.  Their only understanding of water containers is the dinner 
glasses.

E) They tell the firetruck operator that all water must pass through their 
precious chosen dinner glasses before entering that strange container in the 
back yard.

F) The firetruck operator looks at his watch and says, geese, this going to 
take a long time.  Why don't you just fill the pool and then turn on the filter 
afterwards?  Wouldn't that be a better use of *my* time?

G) No, no, say the guests, we have to view each and every drop of water as it 
passes into the, ah pool, as you say.

H) Firetruck operator says, "sorry, this firetruck ain't waiting, it is too 
expensive.  It costs money for me to even be here, whether I am pumping or not."


***************************


In the next few weeks I would like to prepare a roadmap document for where I 
think a project like this one should go.  I will make that available to this 
group.  That will basically be done to determine who and how many other folks 
would see my vision as an attractive destination.  From that reaction I will 
then decide whether to make my fork public or not.  But the idea that any such 
development could be done by pouring it through some tiny dinner glasses is 
silly, and economic suicide.


So I do not see any way for me to continue contributing to this project, 
financially.  Let me just summarize what I have brought to the project.  
Because the patches are not earmarked, there is often a short memory on who 
contributed what.  (There's probably lingering doubt about the firetruck claim.)


1) Doxygen config file.

2) Doxygen comment style.

3) Uncrustify, C/C++ beautifier.   uncrustify.cfg file.  This was an 
opportunity lost to clean up the presentation of the code and to quit arguing 
about where braces should be.

4) Cable helper API, organization and documentation.  tap_state_name() 
tap_set_state(), etc.

5) xsvf.c rewrite.

6) ft2232.c rewrite.

7) CMake build system.


All in a several weeks, with my hands tied.

The only other open source project that I contribute to might have tainted my 
understanding of what can be done.  It is not uncommon for me to contribute 
4000 line patches at a time.  

They actually thank me over there.  Because they understand that if I am doing 
it, it represents an improvement, and improvements are what they want.


Dick


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