On Sun, 13 Feb 2000 12:36:15 -0500 (EST) 
 lainestump@rcn.com (Laine Stump) wrote:

 > Not to be impolite, but that's the same thing everyone was told over 2
 > years ago. About once every six months, a short thread starts up on
 > tech-smp where some people say something like "Okay, it's time to
 > actually do something about this. What if we simplify our goals?" or
 > something like that. After that there's a flurry of messages from a few

Ok, not to be bitter, or anything, but:

	- Every time someone "volunteered" to help, nothing ever became
	  of it.  Volunteers are only useful if they actually DO something.

	- There was a funded project to work on it (funded by my employer),
	  but that project was cancelled because the person who was being
	  paid to do the work apparently lost interest.  This obviously
	  put a damper on things, and well DUH things like that aren't
	  very fun to talk about.

	- Some of us have been working on it actively for quite some time
	  (myself included, although the amount of time I've been able to
	  spend on it has been very low in the last several months), and
	  quite honestly I personally resent being badgered about it over
	  and over again, while at the same time being badgered about 100
	  other things.

Now, it is a fact that:

	- Alpha port almost works w/ SMP now.

	- i386 port is *very very* close to being at the same point as
	  the Alpha port.

None of this code is yet published, nor have the people doing the work
really discussed it much.  I empathize with the latter... they probably
don't want to discuss it because they don't want to open themselves up
to a constant barrage of "CAN I HELP?!", which often is an *obstacle* to
getting stuff like this done.  The first step is complex, and the person
doing the work ususally has a very good picture in their head of how it
all works, something often very difficult to explain to others, and the
time it would take to explain it thoroughly is probably the same amount
of time it takes to get it finished anyhow.

        -- Jason R. Thorpe <thorpej@nas.nasa.gov>