Of Bounties and Mercenaries

[Scott Robert Ladd]

Tom Lord wrote:
> Instead of bounties and mercenaries, a model which has occaisional
> success but a long track record of that success being very limited and
> narrowly focused, may I suggest instead the OSDL model?

The OSDL is an excellent model -- but it does beg one question. Mr. 
Torvalds is now in their employ, and the Linux folk have long been 
grumpy about GCC compile times. I wonder is OSDL has or will fund 
efforts toward improveing compiler speed?

> GCC may be too small a scope to make real progress on your general
> idea and may already be situated in the commercial world in too
> complex a way.

My fear (and that of others) is that GCC has become so commercialized 
that it fails to address the needs of the community at large. I'm not 
anti-commercial -- I'm just looking for some model that meets the needs 
of certain forgotten and ignored constituencies.

> Ultimately: I gather you want to pool funds from people interested in
> issues they can't afford to individually address.  I think that's a
> true and good niche to fill.  But two suggestions: First: Don't nickle
> and dime people --- asking them to earmark every penny rather than
> just giving hints about their interests makes it too hard to send a
> few bucks.

Precisely. I should have been more clear, perhaps.

> Second: if pooling _isn't_ your goal then you should bag
> all this bounty stuff and just be a sole proprietor GCC consultant
> (which, for all I know, you already are).

As a matter of disclaimer, I have never been paid anything to work on 
GCC. I *have* been paid to work on commecial C++ compilers (not INtel, 
for those who wonder).

That *could* change, as I have some customers who very much want OpenMP. 
   And others are looking into funding as well.

-- 
Scott Robert Ladd
Coyote Gulch Productions (http://www.coyotegulch.com)
Software Invention for High-Performance Computing