Messages in this thread | | | Date | Wed, 16 Jul 1997 17:15:26 +0300 | From | "Alexander L. Belikoff" <> | Subject | documenting the kernel |
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Albert D. Cahalan writes: > There will be more successful kernel development in the > future if adequate documentation exists. Specifically, > the best time to document the dcache/inode stuff is now. >
If anyone starts the initiative, please tell me. I'll try to help as well.
I've got quite an experience with a design and implementation of large systems, but it's completely different with an O/S kernel, mostly because of very tight links between hardware and software and because the kernel code is not properly commented. It is sad, that some great guys in the Linux kernel development think of people, asking for the code to be documented, as of a bunch of whiners, who just want to bother them. Instead, the better documented the cod is, the more people will be able to fix bugs they encounter without asking others, so the more time the gurus will spend on introducing new features instead of fixing the old bugs.
It's not fun just to beg for bugs to be fixed without contributing oneself. But you gurus, ples realize that it *is* impossible to take a stock 2.0.x kernel and to start reading right away. A good document comparing a modern Linux to the hypothetical UNIX described in the Bach's book (listing all improvements of Bach's algorithms and data structures) would be great. As soon as I finish reading Bach, I'll try to start writing something like that.
-- -Alexander
============================================================================== Alexander L. Belikoff abel@bfr.co.il Berger Financial Research Ltd. =============================================================================
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