Ingo Molnar writes:
>
> On Tue, 5 Sep 2000, Andi Kleen wrote:
>
> > My point was basically that omitting useful debugging tools makes it
> > not any less likely that people use the (A) strategy (easy fix instead
> > of real understanding). For some people it is so painfull to work with
> > raw dumps that they want to get out of that pain as quickly as
> > possible, like with just adding an if (!ptr) return; and be done with
> > it.
>
> well, they will sooner or later notice that it's easier to fix bugs
> by following the development of the kernel and understanding the
> underlying principles and the code. As elitist as it might seem, we
> rather need 10 highly skilled developers who understand the kernel
> than 100 moderately skilled ones who know how to operate a kernel
> debugger and barely anything else. [this is not an insult towards
> people with less experience - having less experience is just a
> temporary stage of a process, nothing else. But if it becomes the
> end station thats a problem IMHO.]
I think there's a certain amount of wishful thinking here. As you say,
everyone has to start from nothing. But if the learning/development
curve is too steep, or the process is too frustrating, you are going
to lose a proportion of the potential gurus. You can't push people in
a direction they don't want to go. Even a smart person can give up if
something seems unnecessarily cumbersome. After all, they have other
things to do as well besides kernel debugging. From what I've seen,
most of the active developers are chronically overworked. Many
projects compete for your attention. Why hit your head against a
purposely erected brick wall?
Social engineering is harder than you think ;-)
Regards,
Richard....
Permanent: rgooch@atnf.csiro.au
Current: rgooch@ras.ucalgary.ca
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