Re: Wrong link?

[Bill Gatliff <bgat at billgatliff dot com>]

Dave:


>   Gerald, you've jumped to a false conclusion there; "was hijacked" should
> read "has bitrotted".
>
>   "Hijacked" is a pejorative term, and also historically and factually
> inaccurate.  Objsw.com maintained the FAQ initially, but some time ago (around
> 2001 off the top of my head) it became clear that it had fallen into
> disrepair, and Bill Gatliff, who was then and is now an active and valuable
> contributing member of the crossgcc community, volunteered to take it over.
> He then actively maintained it for several years and it was only when his
> website got hacked and wiped out sometime last year that the link became out
> of date.  He has been slow in getting his website rebuilt and hasn't put the
> FAQ back up yet; which is why I've Cc'd him in on this thread.
>   

Indeed, "bitrotted" is in fact a better description of what is happening.

>   Bill, you need to make your intentions clear as to whether you are able and
> willing to resume your maintainance duties.  Are you going to get the crossgcc
> FAQ back up there?  If not, probably the best thing to do would be to replace
> the paragraph with a reference to the mailing list (crossgcc@sourceware) and
> to Dan Kegel's crosstool and the related website.
>   

Thanks for the kind words, Dave.  I am still quite committed to the 
crossgcc community, but I'm doing a lot of work behind the scenes as of 
late.

It's ironic that the security breach came through the Wiki software I 
had set up as a supplement to the FAQ.  A wiki that _nobody_ seemed to 
pay any attention to.  Ever.  Even when it was clear that many of the 
information needs of the crossgcc community were not being well met by a 
FAQ-type document.  Even when I had posted tutorials and detailed build 
procedures in the Wiki, which were really too detailed for a FAQ.

I don't think that a blanket link to crosstool is what is needed, 
because there is a lot of information that crossgcc'ers need that 
crosstool doesn't address, for example how to integrate newlib into an 
embedded system.  Crosstool doesn't even do newlib, in fact.

I'm happy to resume hosting the crossgcc document, but I don't have the 
time at the moment to give it a major overhaul--- which is what it 
needs.  And I hesitate to restore a document that is out of date.  And I 
still think a Wiki is the way to go, and I'm willing to donate a 
dedicated machine and a more secure Wiki installation towards that 
goal.  But since nobody contributed before, I don't have any reason to 
believe anyone will contribute now.  Which makes me wonder if anyone is 
using it, and I don't have the time to maintain a document that nobody 
reads.  We couldn't even get anyone to change the URL in the mailing 
list to point to the right place.

To summarize, I'm happy to re-post the FAQ but it is out of date and has 
been for some time.  It needs someone with the interest and time to 
update it.  Furthermore, I'm willing to donate resources to provide a 
Wiki, which I think is a better way to provide the information that 
people might be looking for.  But in both cases only if someone will 
actually use it.   Suggestions welcome.

At any rate, I would prefer the term "hijacked" not be used, since it is 
historically and factually inaccurate.



b.g.

--
Bill Gatliff
bgat@billgatliff.com