Linus Torvalds wrote:
>
> I think you missed the point of my original reply completely.
>
> The _technical_ side of the tool in question is completely secondary.
>
> The social engineering side is very real, and immediate.
>
> It's not whether you can use tools to do the work.
>
> It's about what kind of people you get.
>
Linus,
I think everyone respects your opinion here, but it's the difference
between a paintbrush and a spray can. Some artists paint with a camel
hair brush, some paint with a spray can (like an air brush artist does)
-- graffitti artists are even more crude, and use a spray can and a
concrete wall.
Putting in kdb or anything else as a config option for "make config"
won't matter one way or the other relative to the development or
"weeding out" of kernel developers. After all, you may want someone
around who looks up at the sky every once and a while for asteroids
heading towards earth.
One thing that will happen if you do this is that Linux kernel evolution
will explode, since the debugger will act a lot like ultra-violet
radiation, and cause myriad Linux mutations to appear rapidly. Darwinsm
relies on two principals to work - random mutations, and environmental
pressure. Your analogy describes only one side -- encironmental
pressure, while on the other you are limiting the process of mutation.
If you require that all Linux kernel work be "aryan" (not meant to
offend anyone in Germany), and all Linux code must have blue eyes and
blonde hair, this process will not promote the other side of the
equation, since the process of mutation is in essence halted. Breeding
with dogs and horses over centuries has proven this. Pure bred dogs
suffer from a long list of genetic maladies due to in-breeding and
line-breeding, such a abiotrophy, ataxia, and other problems.
:-)
Jeff
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Sep 15 2000 - 21:00:13 EST