[squeak-dev] not everyone _can_ be a package czar!

Tim Johnson tjohnson at iwu.edu
Mon Dec 15 19:57:29 UTC 2008


On Dec 15, 2008, at 1:33 PM, Keith Hodges wrote:

>>> So when I fix a bug in magma do I have to contact 6 different czars?
>>
>> Hopefully not.  Hopefully you would not also have to understand the
>> entire packaging system.  (Or open your firewall to allow IRC packets
>> to pass...)
>>
>> - TimJ
> Oh come on what's with the negativity!
>
> http://www.jwirc.com/chat.html

Oh, shame on me, I feel compelled to answer.  ;)

IRC is fleeting, temporary, ephemeral...
IRC is cliquey...
IRC is messy...
IRC is addictive...
IRC is an old, old friend of mine.

Suppose someone has a question about the packaging system.  That  
person decides to try IRC for a solution.  The person asks his  
question on IRC, and one or more of the following happens:

1) The one person qualified to answer the question is not there.
2) Nobody answers the question.
3) Other conversation ensues, and the person is not able to tear  
himself away to return to the original problem.
4) The question is answered.

Should the result be #4, that leaves the community with one more  
person now understanding the answer to the problem.  Should another  
person in the future have the same problem, that person will be stuck  
trying his luck with the four steps above.   Or, that person can try  
searching Google, and then come up with an IRC log, which he can then  
try to parse.  That is, if the conversation took place in the public  
channel.  If the question was answered via private message, then the  
exchange which took place on IRC will not help anyone but the person  
who originally sought the answer.

Please don't think I'm dissing IRC as a whole.  I just think it would  
serve the community best if everyone was on the channel, 24 hours a  
day, every day, always listening and answering.  That's a lot of time  
spent on IRC.  Maybe that's your goal  :)

- TimJ




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