FreeLists / haiku-appserver / [haiku-appserver] Re: plan (LONG)

["DarkWyrm" <bpmagic@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Guys,

It really bothers me to see you snapping at each other like this. Right 
now, I honestly can't really tell what state the server is in because 
the updates are coming so quickly. This is a *great* problem to have. 
Let's not forget that we are a team with a common goal. 

In the years (has it really been that long?) that I've been working on 
the server, I've personally been where Adi is and where Stephen is when 
it comes to working on some feature or some bugfixes. I know it's hard 
waiting for someone to do something that you're depending on, either 
directly or indirectly. I *really* know how hard it is to have 
something you're working on and simply not have the ability to work on 
it for one reason or another and have someone else want to do it for 
you.

The screen update code was something I was working on (and struggling 
with) and Adi asked to give it a shot. After a while, lo and behold, it 
worked *correctly* and better than I had ever gotten it. Then again, I 
also remember being reluctant to have Adi work on the server in the 
first place (it had been pretty much just me up to that point), but I 
don't know how I could have gotten along without him and his efforts.

We need to work together, guys, not step on each others' toes and get 
in each other's way. There's still a lot of work to be done. 
Unfortunately, a lot of the work that needs done depends on common code 
(i.e. ServerWindow, etc). What this is going to need is a lot more e-
mails flying around than usual -- better communication on the team.

I can't make you guys do anything, but I have some suggestions on what 
we should do:

1) If you've been working on something and finish it, figure out what 
you want to do next and post to the list about it. This is especially 
true if you're going to make widespread changes to the code. It might 
seem kind of silly to say "I'm going to start adding support for 
OpenType layout tables. FYI" or something, but it helps prevent these 
kinds of problems.

2) Be careful what you say and how you say it. Please remember that 
because we are not all actually talking face-to-face, what we mean 
might not mesh exactly with the words that we place in an e-mail. 
Smilies help, but they don't fix everything. If you're really not sure 
about how something will come across, come back to the e-mail a little 
later and re-read it before hitting 'Send'. You might come across 
something that make you think 'I wrote this??'. I'm just as guilty of 
this as anyone else, so just a reminder. :^)

BeGeistert has been getting a lot of attention on the project in 
general this time around. The main reasons are that mphipps is going 
and also a number of people have wanted to have something significant 
to demo on the app_server. The kernel has made leaps and bounds thanks 
to Axel, Ingo, and others. Michael's work on getting the server up and 
running has been just what people outside the project needed as a 
reminder that we aren't just all talk and no action. I still can't 
believe that we have a working (if somewhat buggy) bash prompt running 
under the GUI. 

I would appreciate it very much if perhaps Adi and Stephen could work 
together on the update code if at all possible. It would be a good 
thing if more than one person understood how it works. Adi's definitely 
the authority on that particular part of the code -- I *still* have to 
get around to figuring it out, myself. :P As always, if you guys need 
anything (unlikely as that may be) I'm still around. :D

--DW