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SubjectRe: Weird spelling fixes in 2.1.107
   Date: 	Fri, 26 Jun 1998 09:11:01 -0700 (PDT)
From: David Lang <dlang@diginsite.com>

how about reminding these people that the 2.1 kernels are DEVELOPMENT
and that is where changes are expected to be made that may break the
kernel. If they are not willing to accept the fact that ALPHA (or is
it considered BETA?) code changes may have problems then there is no
way for them to work with the development kernels.

The point which Terry is making --- which is a good one --- is that the
spelling changes sends a bad message that Kernel programmers aren't
concerned about backwards compatibility, and arbitrarily make changes to
interfaces without worrying about what programs they break. Given how
much of a hard time I've given the glibc programmers about their not
caring about compatibility issues, it is embarassing to see that we have
a few kernel programmers who also don't get the backwards compatibility
issue at a very fundamental level. So much for my statement that kernel
programmers seem to understand the backwards compatibility better than
glibc programmers. :-)

(As always, there are exceptions to every rule.)

At some level it's Linus's fault for not more carefully checking the
patch before applying it, but he's been busy enough that when whoever
submitted the patch said "it's only spelling fixes", I can't really
fault him for not stopping and making sure this was the case. In any
case, given the level of flamage we've had on this issue, it's very
likely that both Linus and the unnamed spelling/grammar fanatic will be
more careful in the future.

The one good thing out of this whole episode is that unlike the glibc
developers, we haven't had a single kernel developer say that breaking
compatibility was a *good* thing. So once the compatibility problem was
pointed out, everyone agreed that we should fix it by backing out the
errant spelling fixes.

- Ted







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