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  • From: Karsten Behrmann <BearPerson AT gmx.net>
  • To: sm-discuss AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [SM-Discuss] Vote for Cauldron Component Lead
  • Date: Mon, 19 Jun 2006 22:24:43 +0200

Whee, speeches! Here we go then...

First, let me tell you how I came to the SMGL Cauldron Team and stuff.
I originally used SuSE, getting tired of tweaking Windows. After a while
there, I got increasingly annoyed at YaST just clobbering whatever config
changes I made outside of it. I came to SMGL after asking some friends.
I think I still have a 0.5 or 0.6 CD sitting somewhere.
After using it for a while (with trips to the local university to grab
sources that my 56k modem line had no chance of getting) I started to get
interested in developing. I spent a summer hacking away at some cheap
automatic menu-generation thing and getting some experience at bash
scripting doing so. I fixed the occasional bug that came my way, then
vanished in the US for half a year, bypassing the Hamish thing and
our lead rotation.
I then learned proper coding, design, and priorities from Andrew Stitt
(afrayedknot) working as sorcery doc and bug monkey for a while.
When I became aware that the ISO team was being heavily understaffed
(while sorcery was doing alright) I thought it best if I went there
for some bash hacking.
I wrote basically all of our current ISO generation scripts and rewrote
a good deal of the ISO installer code. I think there was a time where
I had 3-7 commits per week for almost a year.
Now, I'm the main maintainer of said scripts, running through bugzilla,
fixing whatever seems wrong with it, and trying to automate them all the
way so we have truly reproducible ISOs, anywhere.

So much for history.
Where do I see us going?
In the immediate future, we should get x86_64 underway (yes, I'm finally
convinced it's a reasonable 1.0 target, as long as it doesn't cause giant
difficulties). No, I don't think multilib is a good idea.
Further, we should have LVM (except for /) and a flexible install using
cast by 1.0. I don't think there are many more targets, and I don't want
to add any more. I think if we pull ourselves together, we can reach 1.0
in reasonable time.
In the long run, what I would like to see is fully-automated ISO generation.
This will blur a bit the line between prometheus and an ISO factory, but
I think it will be very helpful.
Basically, I would like to see ISO factories updating grimoires per cronjob,
cranking out "nightly" or "weekly" ISOs automagically, and an ISO release
being basically a one-button job.
I agree with David that we need scriptable / "use saved config"-type installs.
One thing that they will be useful for is running automated installs in xen
to smoketest / acceptance test the ISOs.
Yes, in all the "anything from sorcery, grimoire, ISO generation, and
installer changes things" mess that the ISO is in the end, we could still do
reproducable tests that blow up whenever someone messes up well enough.
I think that's a goal worth reaching.

(Note: I don't think David and me disagree much over any of these points,
but it does make for nice speech material ;-> )

Also, I realize that there's an inherent danger for any "technical lead" on
a project to become a "kingpin", someone who is the only one who understands
the internals of some horribly complicated thing.
I might be not doing well at that most of the time, but I am trying my best
to avoid becoming that. I just don't think it's fair for an open source
project to have open but totally weird code. I will write wiki pages
about how the ISO generation works internally (the last were lost when our old
server died) and explain to whoever is interested how to use and run things.

As for me, I am probably a reasonably good bash/sed coder, but don't have
all that much time for Sourcemage as I'd like to have. I am currently on
an 40hr/wk internship, and am also a member of staff on the freenode IRC
network. (If any of you has any issues there, I'm always happy to help :) )
However, I'll do my best to get anything done that should be done. You'll
usually not see me doing anything on the grimoire side (unless I do a
scripted change of a thousand spells and then put the wrong date on HISTORY
for each ;P ), I see myself more a script-writing person. I'm no good at
staying up-to-date with most spells installed to my box even 8)

So I guess it's up to you, voters of Source Mage, to determine what you want
the cauldron team to look like:
Either the code monkey with a sign saying "Team Lead", with his assistant
sorting bugs and doing press conferences more often than him;
Or the Secretary of Magical Cooking organizing everything, and occasionally
write(1)'ing some directions to the code monkey in the corner, hacking away
at his terminal.
(David, feel free to come up with your pair of descriptions :) )

Sorry for the lengthy speech, guys... just got carried off a bit 8)
So Far,
Karsten "BearPerson" Behrmann
--
Karsten Behrmann | Source Mage GNU/Linux developer, ISO team
BearPerson AT gmx.net | http://www.sourcemage.org

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