Bikeshed Reports [was: Status reports - why not regularly?]

[Narvi]

On Wed, 14 Jan 2004, Harald Schmalzbauer wrote:

> On Wednesday 14 January 2004 03:06, Robert Watson wrote:
> > On Tue, 13 Jan 2004, Peter Schultz wrote:
> > > Over 2003 I inadvertently started around four bikesheds.  Every time it
> > > happened I wanted to document it so that the beating of dead horses
> > > could be kept to a minimum.  It would basically list items of great
> > > contention or things that just plain need a good hacker's attention.
> > >
> > > Hindsight is 20/20, but I think a resource like this would have
> > > prevented me from pushing people's buttons.  It's not all that easy to
> > > harvest bikeshed discussions from the mailing lists, and a lot of them
> > > have to do with issues that end users are interested in.  I adore
> > > FreeBSD volunteers and don't like to see them bothered with what color
> > > to paint a bikeshed.
> > >
> > > I can dig up something on this if it's of interest to people.
> >
> > I'd be happy to help set up a www.freebsd.org/project/bikeshed web page to
> > hold the hard-earned results of your research.  Although perhaps they
> > actually belong in the FAQ :-).
>
> This sounds great! And I hav an idea about the very first pragraph: What the
> hack is bikeshed?
> From the context I guess it's something like braindamaged circumstance/idea.
>

No. its more like a simple thing on which everybody has deeply ingrained
ideas for the best way that they cannot see go otherwise and hence a long
and essentially fruitless discussion unfolds.

> But no dictionary has helped me so far. It also looks to be FreeBSD specific,
> isn't it?
>

Not at all. It's from "Parkinson's Laws", a book on corporations,
management and why the wrong people tend to end up there from time to
time (or slightly more often than that).

> Thank you,
>
> -Harry
>