Messages in this thread | | | Date | Mon, 14 Jan 2002 14:32:23 -0800 (PST) | From | Davide Libenzi <> | Subject | Re: Penelope builds a kernel |
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On Mon, 14 Jan 2002, Eric S. Raymond wrote:
> Scenario #3: Penelope goes where the geeks are surfing. > > The girl geek Melvin noticed over at the computer lab is named > Penelope. She's studying proteomics, and runs Linux on the laptop she > just bought because Linux supports the best software she can afford > for modeling protein folding. > > Penelope is what the trade rags call a "power user". She's pretty > bright, and likes computers, but she's got more important things to > think about than the details of how to configure a kernel. Like > getting a better handle on the effect of van der Waals forces on alpha > sheets, or the latest paper on ribosomal electron transport, or why > she can't seem to meet men who don't bore the crap out of her even in > a fair-sized college town. > > She's just heard about a PCMCIA card that has a MEMS array of chemical > sensors on it. The thing could replace the bulky, balky > gel-chromatography setup she's using now, and make it unnecessary for > her to fight other students for bench time. There's even a Linux > driver for the card (and user-space utilities to talk to it) on one of > the bio sites she uses -- way too specialized an item for her distro > to carry, and anyway she doesn't want to wait for the next release. > > Penelope needs to build a kernel to support her exotic driver, but she > hasn't got more than the vaguest idea how to go about it. The > instructions with the driver source patch tell her to apply it at the > top level of a current Linux source tree and then just say "build the > kernel" before getting off into technicalia about the user-space > tools. > > She could ask that guy who's been eyeing her over at the computer lab > for help; Penelope knows what a penguin T-shirt means, and he's not > too bad-looking, if a bit on the skinny side. On the other hand, she > knows that guys like that tend to take over the whole process when > they're trying to be helpful; they can't help displaying their prowess > and doing more than you asked for, it's biologically wired in. And > she's learned that letting someone else take over maintaining your > equipment properly in a way you don't understand is a good way to have > it flake out on you just short of a deadline. > > On the third hand, she really *doesn't* want to spend her think time > absorbing a bunch of irrelevant hardware details just to get the one > driver she needs up and running. What she needs is some fast, > hassle-free technological empowerment, not Yet Another Learning > Experience. (And a boyfriend would be nice too, while she's wishing.) > > If Penelope learns from the README file that all *she* has to do is > type "configure; make" to build a kernel that supports her hardware, > she can apply that MEMS card patch and build with confidence that the > effort is unlikely to turn into an infinite time sink. > > Autoconfigure saves the day again. That guy in the penguin T-shirt > might even be impressed...
With todays lack of hooking methods you do want to give up even this one ?! Damn you ... :-)
- Davide
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