On Mon, 12 Jun 2000 colin@field.medicine.adelaide.edu.au wrote:
> Cox> You are becoming the biggest hindrance to the acceptance of the file
> system your engineers are writing for you.
IOW, some of the things Reiser says may count against the premature
inclusion of RFS in the kernel.
> Reiser questions Cox's personal integrity.
Immediately after this, he effectively admitted to the same fault himself.
> Cox then suggests that Reiser's comments could hinder his code's
> inclusion in 2.4.
No. He indicated that Reiser was not making any progress or friends by
making personal (unfounded) allegations. There are right and wrong ways to
attempt to establish support for your plan: slagging off one of the most
respected and productive members of the community on a false premise is
probably not the right way...
> For Cox to even suggest this as a pretext for exclusion merely confirms
> Reiser's perceptions. Decisions may be made on personal (not engineering)
> grounds.
This is entirely justified: including RFS without adequate integration
testing and support/maintenance would be substantially worse than not
including it. Reiser's antagonism strongly suggests that there will be
limited cooperation over future development/maintenance; if this is the
case, the code must be excluded.
> I would have hoped that Linux bundling decisions were exclusively
> engineering-based,
A rather naive approach: in practice, the code alone is no use. If Reiser
is not prepared to cooperate and address criticism/faults of his code,
then the code should be excluded anyway.
> ``For however strong a new prince may be in troops, yet
> will he always have need of the good will of the inhabitants, if he wishes to
> enter into firm possession of the country.'' [Machiavelli, the Prince]
The quote appears to support my side of this, not yours... Reiser is
trying to force his code into the kernel prematurely, and rather than
building support, he is just attacking those who oppose him - using his
strength of troops to override the wishes of the inhabitants.
> I should add, on a personal note, that I only speak freely because I have no
> intention of ever adding a line to Linux kernel, unless it's forked.
Why?
James.
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