From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: from db3outboundpool.messaging.microsoft.com (db3ehsobe004.messaging.microsoft.com [213.199.154.142]) by yocto-www.yoctoproject.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2D77FE006D9 for ; Tue, 26 Jun 2012 11:51:07 -0700 (PDT) Received: from mail82-db3-R.bigfish.com (10.3.81.237) by DB3EHSOBE005.bigfish.com (10.3.84.25) with Microsoft SMTP Server id 14.1.225.23; Tue, 26 Jun 2012 18:49:24 +0000 Received: from mail82-db3 (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by mail82-db3-R.bigfish.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5A9BF4402F4; Tue, 26 Jun 2012 18:49:24 +0000 (UTC) X-Forefront-Antispam-Report: CIP:160.33.194.228; KIP:(null); UIP:(null); IPV:NLI; H:usculsndmail01v.am.sony.com; RD:mail01.sonyusa.com; EFVD:NLI X-SpamScore: -4 X-BigFish: VPS-4(zzbb2dI98dI9371I1432Izz1202hzzz2fh2a8h668h839h93fhd25hf0ah) Received-SPF: pass (mail82-db3: domain of am.sony.com designates 160.33.194.228 as permitted sender) client-ip=160.33.194.228; envelope-from=tim.bird@am.sony.com; helo=usculsndmail01v.am.sony.com ; .am.sony.com ; Received: from mail82-db3 (localhost.localdomain [127.0.0.1]) by mail82-db3 (MessageSwitch) id 1340736562400536_21571; Tue, 26 Jun 2012 18:49:22 +0000 (UTC) Received: from DB3EHSMHS002.bigfish.com (unknown [10.3.81.243]) by mail82-db3.bigfish.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5DC433A0233; Tue, 26 Jun 2012 18:49:22 +0000 (UTC) Received: from usculsndmail01v.am.sony.com (160.33.194.228) by DB3EHSMHS002.bigfish.com (10.3.87.102) with Microsoft SMTP Server (TLS) id 14.1.225.23; Tue, 26 Jun 2012 18:49:21 +0000 Received: from usculsndmail12v.am.sony.com (usculsndmail12v.am.sony.com [146.215.230.103]) by usculsndmail01v.am.sony.com (Sentrion-MTA-4.2.2/Sentrion-MTA-4.2.2) with ESMTP id q5QIp10r032494 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=FAIL); Tue, 26 Jun 2012 18:51:01 GMT Received: from mail1x.sgo.in.sel.sony.com (mail2.bc.in.sel.sony.com [43.130.1.112]) by usculsndmail12v.am.sony.com (Sentrion-MTA-4.2.2/Sentrion-MTA-4.2.2) with ESMTP id q5QIox9h004369 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=FAIL); Tue, 26 Jun 2012 18:51:00 GMT Received: from [43.135.148.222] ([43.135.148.222]) by mail1x.sgo.in.sel.sony.com (Switch-3.4.2/Switch-3.4.2) with ESMTP id q5QIonRW018479; Tue, 26 Jun 2012 18:50:49 GMT Message-ID: <4FEA0505.6010108@am.sony.com> Date: Tue, 26 Jun 2012 11:52:53 -0700 From: Tim Bird User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:12.0) Gecko/20120430 Thunderbird/12.0.1 MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Tomas Frydrych References: <10398861.esnekvBoZU@helios> <4FE9D965.4070906@linux.intel.com> <3153041.1FMPtSpq0x@helios> <4FE9E58C.9020408@r-finger.com> <4FE9EEF6.7050001@r-finger.com> In-Reply-To: <4FE9EEF6.7050001@r-finger.com> X-OriginatorOrg: am.sony.com Cc: "yocto@yoctoproject.org" Subject: Re: the current yocto FAQ is pretty much valueless X-BeenThere: yocto@yoctoproject.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.13 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussion of all things Yocto List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 26 Jun 2012 18:51:07 -0000 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit On 06/26/2012 10:18 AM, Tomas Frydrych wrote: > On 26/06/12 17:53, Robert P. J. Day wrote: >> and if you want major industry players to take yocto seriously, the >> last thing you want to do is answer their heartfelt pleas for >> assistance with, "i'm sorry, that's technically not a yocto question, >> you should try another mailing list." > > That's never been case on this list as far as I recall, folk here are > pretty responsive to questions being asked. > > At the same time, OE/Poky/Yocto is a fairly complex framework and nobody > should expect that the necessary expertize to build a commercial grade > products with it can be acquired by simply reading a FAQ, no matter how > well written, or by just endlessly asking questions on a mailing list. > As a commercial player you are either prepared to make the in house > investment that is necessary to acquire that expertize (reading the > documentation and studying the source code, etc.), or you you can buy > the expertize on commercial basis from someone who has it. Well, granted that OE/Poky/Yocto is fairly complex. I've followed OE for years (though never successfully built anything with it). I had my first successful build of (Poky?, Yocto?) just recently, with a build image I got from Dave Stewart at LinuxCon Japan. (Thanks very much Dave!). However, complexity is no excuse for terrible FAQs. And the FAQ on the wiki is pretty bad. For example, after reading various FAQs I still have no idea what kind of thing "Poky" is. I know that bitbake is a build tool. I know that OE is a package meta-information project. Yocto Project is an umbrella project for a lot of tools and technologies (Poky among them). But is Poky a distro (sample/reference or otherwise?) or something else? When I ran my recently-built image, my target /etc/issue had this content: "Yocto (Built by Poky 7.0) 1.2" Is Poky a build system? A distro? a managed set of package sources and build information? I don't even know what to make of this. And this is from a developer pushing Yocto inside my company (where we are making the "in-house investment" that is claimed to be needed to do something with this.) Now, here's my disclaimer: I read the manuals in the past and found them hard to follow, and thus finding my desire to read them again somewhat diminished, I haven't done so lately. Also, I don't mean to pick on "Poky" - that's just the thing du-jour that I'm not clear about within the Yocto Project. Maybe the definition of Poky is crystal clear somewhere in the docs. If so, sorry for the rant. But yeah, a FAQ cleanup and build-out would be good. I think one problem is that various people who are qualified to make FAQ entries are so close to the project that certain features and terminology are second-nature to them, and go unspoken or unclarified in the entries. I'm not in this category, so if I find some time I'll try to make a few FAQ entries that address the points of confusion I've seen. -- Tim ============================= Tim Bird Architecture Group Chair, CE Workgroup of the Linux Foundation Senior Staff Engineer, Sony Network Entertainment =============================