: > : o Ability to nuke source code that is not specific to your configuration.
: > : Not necessarily a default option, but an option, none-the-less.
: > Yes, a one-byte kernel really would fit into the master boot record.
: I'm not talking about the actual kernel binary, I'm talking about the source.
Ok, you can guess yourself in the mean time that I will not second this aspect. ;-)
: > : o Breaking sbpcd.c apart cleanly, per family.
: > Crazy. This can make me really unwilling, boy.
: > If you really want to do a "job" with sbpcd, take it apart and put it
: > together for supporting those damned Funai E24xx drives (in an "isolated"
: > version). They are mis-using the interface lines in a way which does not
: > allow "multiple families" on one cable.
: > You can get the full information you need. Even if you don't manage it
: > there is the hope that it would take you away from your stupid task.
: Maybe you call me boy for my enthusiam, but I'm certainly not. I'm doing this
: in my free time since it is something I feel I can tackle and that other people
: might find useful.
Oh, boy. ;-(
: I didn't release my original 'hack' of sbpcd until about
: 20 people asked me for copies.. I did so specifically stating not to bother you
: with questions about what I did since you'd probably just get angry. It
: obviously has. This is the first negative response I've gotten from my original
: post. I find it rather rude.
One of my "rules" is to answer each personal mail personally. It was pretty
hard with the upcoming flood of IDE/ATAPI drives (or with those users "I saw")
the last year.
The new distributions will give more help (and it will be much easier) to do
a first-time-install with an ATAPI drive, so I can fetch hope, I thought.
Your "changes" to my driver would make it hard to support "my own" users in
future.
With about 50 mails a good day (like after a new InfoMagic set came out,
or similar "new user happenings"), it already is hard enough to get a
context if some "standard difficulty reporter" is coming back with "it still
is as I told you yesterday". There is no "picture recall" at the "first look",
and that means: consuming more time to research, needing more to-and-fro
mailing. I would have to do support for "your" versions, too; unless I
hide my name from my sources - which I am not willing, and I would not
allow it within "your" versions.
: I'm not trying to put you down or anything, but I think that sbpcd.c tries to
: be too 'all-encompassing'..
It is part of the sbpcd design to support different brands on one cable.
I did it without wasting throughput; I will call everyone with the best
obscene words I know who is saying "yes, but not without wasting disk
and memory space".
: > sbpcd does not only support totally different drive families - it also is
: > supporting them alltogether on one cable. Currently, you can mix Matsushita
: > CR-521 plus Longshine LCS-7260 plus Panasonic CR-562 plus CreativeLabs CR-563
: > plus CreativeLabs CD200F plus Funai E2550 or MK4015 or 2800F plus Teac CD-55A
: > plus ECS-AT Vertos 100 up to a total of four one one cable, and you can
: > have up to four cables (more possible).
: Realistically, how many users out there have that many different types of
: CD-ROM's in their machines? How many even have 2? Very little.
Not even a "rhetoric argument".
It is impossible under any other operating system, it works good under
Linux, I am proud of it, I am using it, and enough other people, too.
: How many people enable enough of the debugging information to require a pause
: between each syslog entry? Very little.
Take a look at the recent official sources, please.
: How many systems are locked up by over-ambious address probes?
This question is very populistic; sbpcd has the most efficent auto-probing
you can find, and it is safer than most others.
It is a gift for the new user; if you feel it as a plea, you simply are too
stupid or ignorant to follow my advices.
: I'm not out to get you, I'm only here to help.
I hope to get able some day to see it as more than the helping attempt
of an innocent-feeling kid.
I guess you've dived into sbpcd's internals more than most other users;
you really could take a better task based upon what you have gathered.
The "incompatible Funai" support for example (would end in a separate
driver, I guess), speed improvements for the Teac drives, integration
of sjcd, finding the differences between CD200 and CD200F, testing the
"audio copy" possibilities with some drive families, bettering the
"jitter correction" algorithm ...
: > I did not assemble it to let it tear apart by playing kids, really.
: I'll be a college senior this fall. I'm turning 21 soon.
Yes, a playing kid, in a second aspect: seen from my age.
: If you're trying to scare people away from helping the Linux development
: process, you're doing a good job.
Enthusiasm is of no worth if it turns like this.
Cheers -e
--
Eberhard Moenkeberg GGG W W DDDD GGG
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E-Mail: emoenke@gwdg.de G GGG W W D D G GGG
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