Re: [Chicken-hackers] [PATCH] platform auto-detection mechanism

[Peter Bex]

On Fri, Feb 01, 2013 at 07:31:31PM +0100, Michele La Monaca wrote:
> >> I would never ever sacrifice a feature for the sake of
> >> cross-compilation, I have seen other projects too encumbered by
> >> cross-compilation to have the time and freedom to deliver anything
> >> useful. But that's your project, of course.
> 
> Admittedly I was overstating here, sorry for that but I wanted to
> stress the point.

Glad to hear :)

> Let me restate it more correctly: I wouldn't trade innovation for
> this cross-buildness thing if there is no real usefulness.

There are people (even at least 2 companies) using Chicken on mobile
devices.  This is a niche in which Chicken is quite useful, which we
shouldn't trade for *anything*.

In any case, this is a false dichotomy; it's not like cross-building
precludes innovation.  It's just that it requires some more thought
and effort to get right.

> Again, that is my humble opinion, this is your project.  I
> think you've already delivered and delivered A LOT. I am really really
> impressed, that's the reason I am around.

Good to hear, and great to have you aboard!

> I would sincerly like to have a better understanding of your use case.
> But maybe we are already way too OT to continue this discussion in
> this thread. Let's discuss it privately or start another thread if you
> want to.

Please consider discussing it on the lists.  I'd be rather interested as well.

> > But, please, don't let all that put you down at contributing.
> 
> Don't worry, I am not that kind of person. Even if none of my patches
> slip in, I will continue to use chicken and, possibly, contributing. I
> think I can recognise good things and chicken is one of them, for
> sure. Eventually, I might evaluate to mantain a private branch for
> those patches I consider valuable to me.  Unfortunately, I have
> another couple of ideas I want to implement, but I am afraid of the
> ire of Jim, Peter and maybe even Felix :)

Don't be afraid.  We're generally easy going, but like Mario explained,
we're rather conservative.  This is because we've had some bad
experiences with large changes (especially wrt the build system).

We're slow to move, but please don't let this put you down.  Best advice
is to spread your patches across time so we have some time to digest
them.  This will give you the best results :)

Also, if in doubt, ask for advice.  It's a shame if you put in a lot
of effort into a proposal just to see it shot down.  If you discuss it
in advance, we'll be prepared, and we can discuss the design before it's
implemented.  This will save you time and frustration!

Cheers,
Peter
-- 
http://sjamaan.ath.cx