Re: on reputation and lines and putting things places (Re: gcc branches?)

[Tom Lord <lord at emf dot net>]

Positivity:

	(first I will put on my hat as president of a corporation
	devoted to the use of Free Software).

Is "second" your hacker/engineer hat?  That's the guy I want to talk
with.  When you start asking questions about patch set formats and
their implications in context, then I'll know you are on the right
track.  When you start asking questions about global namespaces for
revisions (changesets), by then we'll be getting along famously.  When
you start asking about how to automate various aspects of the GCC
process in an arch-based framework, I'll [censored] and send you to
heaven.


Pointed vitriol:

       This has things upside down. We do things because of input from
       our customers.


Hmm.  Too bad its _so_ unfashionable to talk about engineering ethics
-- otherwise I'd be able to flame you for that comment in the manner
it deserves without having to endure lots of stupid replies.  Customers
are hyper-super-double-plus-ultimate-thats-why-we-are-here important,
but their demands do not trump fundamentals.  Our relationship with customers
must be a two-way street.


	P.S. The idea that R&D does not get cut back during a
	recession is at best wishful thinking

Not from what I have read.


	But I am afraid we are not about to pay

Yeah, but, you're comparitively dinky anyway, right?  I don't mean
that as an insult.  You're a successful but relatively tiny corp?  If
so, I'm not talking to you (while you're wearing that hat).  I do hope
to make your life better as a side effect, though -- and to help
others succeed at similar scales.  Hurray for human-scale corps!  You
go girl (flippency aside: tiny corps are really cool, if you ask me).

IBM, HP/C -- even all the way down to RHAT .... corps at that scale
can afford this.  It's even very far from a large line-item for them.


"If a thing is worth doing...",
-t