Re: [ros-dev] Time has come, a call to developers

[Aleksey Bragin]

Actually I didn't tell that any housewife could become a president
(or however the saying tells). I told that in order to try to find
and fix bugs, nothing extraordinary is needed, except brain and C
syntax knowledge. Everything else in source code, in open form.
The committer (who already has experience with reactos, by
definition) reviews such a patch, and notices problems if it improper
fix.
What Ged said also underlines the idea.
Every part of the OS may have its own complex points, but one must
not miss the most important thing: you have access to everything.
ReactOS is made from whatever you checkout as trunk/reactos, and
there are no hidden, closed parts.
Another example is that many things could have been done and tested
in Windows when ReactOS was not ready enough yet, but that's another
story, about the history. But let's talk about the future. The future
we can change. The history is the history.
WBR,
Aleksey Bragin.
On May 8, 2008, at 11:52 PM, gedmurphy wrote:
>   I don't mean to sound harsh, but any dev should be
> able to fix bugs
>  in most
>  parts of the OS without knowing how it works.
>  This is especially true in usermode, if a dev can't fix usermode
>  bugs, then
>  they shouldn't have commit access in the first place.
>  Ged.
>  -----Original Message-----
>  From: ros-dev-bounces(a)reactos.org [mailto:ros-dev-
>  bounces(a)reactos.org] On
>  Behalf Of Heis Spiter
>  Sent: 08 May 2008 20:43
>  To: ReactOS Development List
>  Subject: Re: [ros-dev] Time has come, a call to developers
>  Hi,
>  I mostly agree with the ideas developed in that mail. I've just a
>  problem
>  with one of them. Make bugfixing a priority before implementing new
>  features
>  is a great idea; it could avoid some really bad releases such as
>  ReactOS
>  0.3.4. BUT asking people to learn how some Windows parts works in
>  order to
>  fix bugs is a bad idea. In my opinion, fixing bug is easier when
>  the dev
>  know code on which he is working especially when it looks like Win32k
>  subsystem. Other way, it's easier to implement bug than fixing them...
>  So, we should focus our work on fixing bugs in branches of the OS
>  we're
>  working on usually and not trying to learn how something works to
>  fix bug
>  whereas there's a hundred times more skilled developer working on.
>  We should
>  keep the "you work on what you like" motto.
>  I'd like also add something that always made uneasy. I don't know
>  how you,
>  others devs, are working, but I really don't understand why build
>  can be
>  broken after a patch. It should be tested (so build!) before being
>  committed. Committing a patch that broke build shows a lack of
>  tests and
>  potentials bugs.
>  About "And if no beta this year, I'm sorry to say, but it may be
>  too late.",
>  I'm afraid to say I agree. But we aim to make a WinXP OS like or
>  WinXP is
>  about to be retired by Microsoft to leave Vista taking his place.
>  And in my
>  opinion, copying  dead OS have no sense. So, indeed, we should
>  hurry, and
>  that leads to the last point I wanted to speak about. We don't have
>  enough
>  devs. Getting new and skilled ones should be really great for us...
>  That's
>  really hard to find!
>  Anyway, until 0.3.5 comes out, I'll try (as far as I can code) to
>  fix bugs
>  I'll find.
>  Aleksey, do not give up!
>  Best regards,
>  P. Schweitzer.