[Ksummit-2013-discuss] Keeping the barbarians at the gate

[Paul Gortmaker]

[Re: [Ksummit-2013-discuss] Keeping the barbarians at the gate] On 18/07/2013 (Thu 17:41) Kees Cook wrote:

[...]

> I've seen extensive commentary posted about things not to do from Greg
> KH (usually due to his reviews of staging/) and from Linus. While
> those are certainly good starts for this kind of documentation, I
> think it's even more valuable to focus on what TO do, and WHY. Having

If something gave you the idea I was proposing listing all negative
"things not to do" then that was unintentional.  I try to avoid such
lists because they are unbounded, and can become annoying.  For example
"do not stick a fork in the toaster", "do not send Linus a picture of
your cat" and my personal favourite: all the car ads on TV that say
"Professional driver - do not attempt".

That was why I wanted to focus on expectations (and assumed the positive
sense of that term).  There is room for the "do not" items, but they
should be limited to just the mistakes people commonly make.  I wrote a
netdev FAQ recently[1] to cover off what I thought may be some
undocumented expectations.  Aside from saying _dont_ post new patches
when net-next was closed (because that mistake is common), I think most
other items were purely informational and giving positive information
that should help people get things right the 1st time.

So I think we are in agreement here on the value of what to do & why.

Paul.
--

[1] http://lwn.net/Articles/559211/


> the why, along with details about what badness happens when something
> doesn't happen, would be very useful for people being directed to this
> documentation.
> 
> And maybe we can spice it up by recommending that anyone directing
> other people here can add details about their current frustration
> levels. :)
> 
> "I am annoyed. Please see $URL."
> "My frustration level is extreme. Please see $URL."
> 
> I dunno. It seems like getting out frustration is still a part of
> this. The other part is educating the person who needs help with their
> patch (for whatever reason).
> 
> -Kees
> 
> --
> Kees Cook
> Chrome OS Security