>But after studying the code a bit and following the mailing lists for a while, the perception of organization and progress is >poor, what introduces the doubt: there is a lot of work to be done, would my effort be wasted?

The only case your effort might be wasted is if you`d writing bad/incorrect code.

Its a pity your criticizm is not a constructive one. Its easy to point out things in this project that are not really capable. You dont need to be a developer to point those, more or less correctly. The real deal is thinking of solutions.

>1) Documentation. I know most devs like me hate having to write it. But complex projects can’t progress well without a >minimum well structured documentation. Someone has to define a basic hierarchy and rules. Whenever someone knew or >learned anything that is undocumented, update the docs, so that others can work coherently. Maybe some of you think there >is some, but to me (please remember my outsider point of view) it seems very poor.

In simple words, we should force writing docs via commit rules? You are right to say that documenting is really despised of. What can we do? Developers here code for fun/knowledge, they arent paid. How can we force anyone to write docs if that person doesnt want to do it? Introducing such rules would quickly result in simple equation: undocumented code or no code at all. Now that`s a great idea.

>2) Drivers installation. The drivers needed to run ReactOS in any hardware or VM are already available. It is prioritary, at least, >to have .inf parsing and adv/setup api working well. If developers can’t start the OS in the platform they need to test hardly will >anyone be efficient, if does not leave the effort at all. Of course drivers can fail after succesfully installed, as so many things, >but bugs in .inf installation are first time stoppers and need to be addressed asap.

Surprise... it actually works. Please see Supported Hardware wikipage. Its not simple, it doesn`t work ootb and it would need serious improvements, but you can actually install ANY driver apart from the one for I/O controller, as UNIATA is currently hardcoded into registry and not using hdc.inf as it should be (/me looks at Fireball). I`m not a programmer, yet i managed test several devices using XP drivers successfully. Anyone could be doing it. The howto is on our wiki and you can just ask on #reactos for assistance.

>3) Bug reporting and tracking database. I’m sure you all agree regarding the necessity of a well designed one. Someone has >to do it, a project like this can not progress far without it.