On Tue, 2007-08-07 at 08:25 +0200, Milan Jurik wrote:
> Hi Matthew,
> 
> Kaiwai Gardiner píše v út 07. 08. 2007 v 15:36 +1200:
> > On Mon, 2007-08-06 at 20:09 +0200, Milan Jurik wrote:
> > > Hi Matthew,
> > > 
> > > I know I'm not right man who should answer you, as I'm from Sun... But
> > > look at it from another perspective:
> > > 
> > > V po, 06. 08. 2007 v 19:18, Kaiwai Gardiner píše:
> > > > Agreed, but at the same driver - are drivers *truely* that secret? I
> > > > mean, wpi for 3945 was developed in 'secret' - why? what possible loss
> > > > of competitive advantage would it yield? looking at it from my angle,
> > > > all I see are positives by way of consumers actually seeing and knowing
> > > > that Sun are making/porting drivers to Solaris.
> > > > 
> > > 
> > > Are you sure that Sun employees had access to 3945 development except
> > > the developer of it? The most of them didn't know about it. And it is
> > > way how distributed development happens - somebody (or some team) is
> > > working on something till point it is "compilable" or "usable" or just
> > > "publicable". The level of this point is on the developer decision, as
> > > usual in open source world. Some developers are publishing all their
> > > steps, some are publishing something usefull for users. You had the
> > > access to source code of wpi at the same time as the most of Sun
> > > employees. Today you can find on bugs.opensolaris.org the responsible
> > > engineer for all accepted RFEs, why not to contact him if you want to
> > > help with development and/or testing of some particular RFE?
> > 
> > BUt at the same time - if the 'community' knew that wpi was being worked
> > on - Sun might have actually found people helping port it to Solaris :-)
> > 
> > A small hear-ye hear-ye would have been on order.
> > 
> 
> But this happend, the responsible engineer took related RFE and you
> could see that on bugs.opensolaris.org. I agree with one thing - bugster
> is very good tool, but its public interface is not very useful in case
> that you want to monitor some CR.

Hence my leaning towards Bugzilla - people give it a hard time but it is
easy to keep track of favourite bugs etc. etc. Much more
'collabortative' - you can actually update submissions etc. etc. all of
that should be available on the bugster.

> > > And I don't know why File Events Notification API - PSARC/2007/027 is
> > > not public. You can see who made the putback - ask him, maybe he is not
> > > reading this list.
> > 
> > Its very hard to know when there is no name attached to the put back as
> > far as I see.
> > 
> 
> http://mail.opensolaris.org/pipermail/onnv-notify/2007-April/007227.html
> 
> -> 6381975 solaris need centrino ipw3945 wifi support
> 
> http://bugs.opensolaris.org/view_bug.do?bug_id=6381975

But these are hardly 'visable' forms of communication; its like saying,
'yes, there is documentation, read the source code'.

> -> now you know ;-)
> 
> And I think that Brian is very active even in community to help people
> with this driver :-) He just worked hard to release something and even
> at that time he was ready to communicate with those who wrote e-mail to
> him (I know it :-) ).

Then maybe its the opensolaris.org website maintainers not willing to
create some buzz about what is being worked on.

> > > > Things should be merged into the public tree, just like they're merged
> > > > inside the company. Everything that occurs inside Sun should occur at
> > > > the same time on the other side - if a case log as been updated, then it
> > > > should be accessible to the public.
> > > > 
> > > 
> > > But wpi wasn't merged to Sun tree significantly sooner (it tooks few
> > > minutes, that sync between ON gate inside and outside). The developer
> > > worked on his source code in his own workspace. As usual.
> > 
> > Would it be better to put documentation out there before the code?
> > 
> 
> That's typically PSARC and sometimes updates in Bugster. E.g. manpage is
> written after driver completition. Which docu?

The SPARC information before putting the code in. When it appears on the
ONNV change, I want to be able to read about it straight away.

> > > > Its all about transparency in the development process; and if it means
> > > > that developers think out aloud on ideas - I'd sooner see Sun
> > > > programmers conduct regular brain farts on a blog and know there is some
> > > > cranium activity about future Solaris development than just sitting on
> > > > the side lines praying something is occurring in the deep crypt of Sun.
> > > > 
> > > 
> > > Did you look at RFEs? Did you look at PSARCs? Did you look at projects
> > > on opensolaris.org? And can you show me some really big project where
> > > all developers are informing community about their actual work and
> > > future plans?
> > > 
> > > Please, leave the decision about their openness on developers. Some
> > > prefer public development (lots of Sun employee), some are working in
> > > their own workspaces (lots of Sun employee).
> > > 
> > > You want just big amount of paperwork from us ;-) I hope the community
> > > is not my second manager asking for weekly reports...
> > 
> > Its about communication - I'm generally not a person who likes to
> > communicate anything with anyone - I generally speaking keep people on a
> > 'need to know' basis - but at the same time, there is a need to inform
> > the community on what is happening.
> > 
> > Tell the community what they're working on - and shock horror, they
> > might actually find that a few of the great unwashed might actually be
> > interested in contributing.
> > 
> 
> Look at opensolaris.org, do you think that Sun employees are not doing
> it in many cases? :-) I know some projects on opensolaris, which are
> done on public base fully. And I know that some are very active in
> communication, some not and not only from Sun, frequently they look like
> to be just pushed on public space and public space ignores them. But it
> is improving. You cannot build "community" just waiting on some orders
> or giving them.
> 
> And it is really not only about one way communication, try to contact
> people from community and ask them about their work status or if you can
> help him. Monitor all sources of informations (yes, some are very hard
> to monitor now, but people are trying to improve some ways and/or start
> many things from scratch). Be pro-active and not only on
> opensolaris-discuss list, which is so "huge" today. This will help
> all :-)

Communication doesn't have to go overboard, but a quick, 'this what
we're doing now' would suffice - atleast show there is some pulse in the
body - I go past parts of opensolaris.org and wonder if any of the
people involved are alive because its so quiet.

Matthew

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