[Openmcl-devel] user submissions and open-sourceness

[Jeremy Jones]

On Mon, Jun 16, 2008 at 4:53 PM, Erik Huelsmann <ehuels at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Mon, Jun 16, 2008 at 10:34 PM, Hamilton Link <helink at sandia.gov> wrote:

...

>>
>> My point is... I don't think anyone can reasonably expect useada.u to jump
>> in and work on a 32-bit x86 port (or <user> to jump in and work on <major
>> rewrite>).  It's silly to suggest it.
>
> Why? Where do you think Apache or Subversion gets its new gurus?
> Exactly by doing what I did: encourage people to contribute, coaching
> them in their efforts.  The hardest of problems are often addressed
> (we find in Subversion) by people who have a fresh look at an old
> problem.
>
> >From what I see happening in SBCL is that - even for software which
> has far less documented sources than Subversion - it's the newcomers
> who do the ports to the new platforms: those are the ones with the
> itch...

That's exactly what's happening with CCL.  Matt is doing the Intel32
port.  He just jumped in and started doing it.  Anyone can do that.

But contributing to a port in progress is much harder.  It requires a
lot of communication.  Even that is possible if the people doing the
port think that the contribution will outweigh the communication
overhead.  I can't think of anyone who takes the time to clearly
explain detailed technical issues better than Gary.  What should we be
doing differently?