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Date: Sat, 21 Apr 2001 23:39:17 -0400
From: "Eric S. Raymond" <esr@thyrsus.com>
To: Alan Cox <alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk>
Cc: CML2 <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>, kbuild-devel@lists.sourceforge.net
Subject: Re: Request for comment -- a better attribution system
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Alan Cox <alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk>:
> 99.9999% of problems don't involve querying the set of maintainers of
> Confg.in files. The system is optimised to the general case of queries people
> need to make. It also happens to be accessible to people who are not
> kernel gurus because it uses roughly English terms for the maintainership
> and area.
> 
> The .0001% case isnt interesting. Thats the difference between real world 
> systems and theory.

Again with due respect, you haven't gotten it yet.  In fact, you've
got it exactly backwards.  Unsurprising -- you're so magnificently
well adapted to the way things are that certain limiting assumptions
of the system you operate in have become invisible to you.

What you call a rare case is rare not because it *should* be rare but because
the work practices and social mechanisms of lkml combine to heavily discourage
improvements that cross jurisdictional boundaries.  

This is a *problem*.  I won't belabor the point, because I am certain
that you'll believe the conclusion more if you figure it out yourself than
if I tell you.  Hint: think about long-term coherency issues in large
codebases.  Think hard.
-- 
		<a href="http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/">Eric S. Raymond</a>

.. a government and its agents are under no general duty to 
provide public services, such as police protection, to any 
particular individual citizen...
        -- Warren v. District of Columbia, 444 A.2d 1 (D.C. App.181)
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