cvs commit: www/en/projects/ideas index.sgml

[Kris Kennaway]

On Fri, Feb 16, 2007 at 11:53:54PM +0000, Robert Watson wrote:
> 
> On Fri, 16 Feb 2007, Kris Kennaway wrote:
> 
> >On Fri, Feb 16, 2007 at 05:12:33PM +0000, Joel Dahl wrote:
> >>joel        2007-02-16 17:12:32 UTC
> >>
> >>  FreeBSD doc repository
> >>
> >>  Modified files:
> >>    en/projects/ideas    index.sgml
> >>  Log:
> >>  Spring cleaning in preparation for Google SoC 2007.  Remove the 
> >>  following
> >>  projects (based on discussions with netchild and rwatson):
> >
> >>  - FPU subsystem overhaul: Not suitable as a Google SoC project.
> >>  - Process Checkpointing: Not suitable as a Google SoC project.
> >
> >Is this a "Google SoC projects list" or a "FreeBSD projects list"? IMO 
> >just because something is not an appropriate SoC project doesn't mean it's 
> >not suitable for someone more advanced to take on.
> 
> The FPU subsystem overhaul port has already been done by Attilio and is 
> available as patches, I believe, and basically requires evaluation at this 
> point.  That evaluation might be an appropriate project for someone to work 
> on (although not for SoC).
> 
> I don't mind seeing process checkpointing on an overall project idea list, 
> but I think we should replace the text there with something substantially 
> more informative.  There's a significant research literature on how you do 
> these sorts of things and I'm not sure we want to ask people to hack it up 
> without figuring out what it is we actually want out of such a project.  
> Otherwise, patches for something we don't want will turn up and leave 
> disappointment all around.  In particular, there are countless reasons why 
> simply implementing "checkpointing" of processes in isolation is relatively 
> meaningless, and if required, probably best done with involvement of the 
> application rather than transparently in the OS.  In a 
> clustered/distributed system, checkpointing provided by the OS is a far 
> more meaningful concept.  If we're serious about wanting checkpointing, 
> let's have a session at the developer summit at BSDCan on what it is we 
> want and why, have a couple of people read into the research literature 
> here, and re-add a checkpointing project once we have something a bit more 
> directed to put up.

OK, these two I didn't snip were just examples though; more generally
I think my point holds :)

Kris