Re: [Xen-users] xen forum

[Konrad Rzeszutek Wilk <konrad.wilk@oracle.com>]

> > I believe we need something that can bridge both of these - helping
> > developers to
> > know about bugs and also track them so users know that things are done and
> > not ignored.
> > And so low maintaince for developers that they can focus on looking at
> > code all day.
> >
> 
> You bring up what seems to me is an obvious point: If developers are
> busy... developing... Why should they sacrifice time spent focusing on any
> given issue to 1) prioritize which issues should be the responsibility of
> an individual developer, and 2) assigning weight to these issues based on
> each of your own arbitrary sets of skills, requirements, etc?  If I
> understand the principles of open source projects (and I admit: I may
> not!), such responsibility usually falls on the project leader[s].  Xen,
> however, is just seemingly so damn big that it's nearly impossible to
> consolidate everything to the point where these decisions can be made,
> especially with regard to bug tracking and fixing.  At least that's the
> sense I'm getting as I've followed this thread for the last week or so ;-)

And there sub-projects - hypervisor, tools (libxc, libxl, xenstore, xend,
xenctx, ..,) QEMU,  Linux kernel
> 
> Your suggestion, Konrad, of something that will bridge the gap---regardless
> of whether that gap really stems from an issue of size and scope as I
> suggest, or even if I'm off base, just so long as the real issue is similar
> enough---is definitely what I, too, suspect is needed.
> 
> Out of all the solutions that exist---and I lost count of the number of
> pieces of software that have been mentioned in this thread---it's painfully
> obvious that the search for the "Silver Bullet" has been an unfortunate
> failure up to this point.  While I'm loathe to say it, especially since
> solving problems with software is a solution we all love and respect, the
> only thing I've been able to think of that *will *fill the void and bridge
> that gap is relatively simple, but far from easy: a human touch.
> 
> Pick the bug tracking system that the developers want to work with, and
> then have someone whose sole responsibility is to keep it neat, organized,
> and summarized.  As bugs reach certain threshholds, the bug list curator
> can nudge a developer for an update, and even if the curator doesn't get
> one, at least information can be compiled and "attacked" from the other
> direction. In this fashion, at least if a developer goes AWOL on a bug
> because it's low priority or deprecated code or whatnot, all he has to do
> is answer an email and the rest of the filing and tracking duties are taken
> care of by someone else.  And if there's anything that I'm getting from
> this thread, it's a sense that keeping things as simple as email without
> having to wade through the sometimes mind-boggling volume of email on the
> Xen-Devel list is the only thing on which a large number of people seem to
> agree.... myself included ;-)

This release George Dunlap volunteered to be a release manager which meant
that his job was to track the features and bugs that he was aware of.
And to remind people about the deadlines.

It helped a lot (at least from my view) with making sure I had X, Y, and
Z ready by a certain data.
> 
> ---
> 
> I've come back to the Xen project over and over again because it really is
> some terrific software.  The more I think about it, the more I see a world
> in which the future of *all* computing takes place on top of Xen and Linux,
> as the combination of the two come ever closer to blurring the lines
> between firmware and OS.  One day I expect that I'll stop syncing data from
> one place to the next and it'll all just live on Amazon or at my house, and
> I'll use the same operating system---the exact same instance---on every
> device.  It's an exciting time to be a nerd ;-)

/me laughs. It certainly is!
> 
> BTW, did I mention that Oracle is looking to hire Xen and Linux developers
> > :-)
> >
> 
> Any chance that the full-time position I mention above is one of them? :-D

Our group is looking at engineers that are comfortable working on the Linux
kernel and Xen to make them both better and faster.

I will find out if there are other groups within Oracle who are looking
for a release manager type person that is more focused on the "human touch"
part :-)

> 
> Best Regards,
> Andrew Bobulsky
> 
> > >
> > > > As professional developer and application support bod myself, I
> > wouldn't ask anybody to read that missive; I wouldn't get any bug reports
> > ever!
> > > >
> > > >
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> > > >
> > >
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> > >
> >
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> >

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