[RFH] writing hacker's guide

The hacker's guide at http://smalltalk.gnu.org/wiki/Hacker%27s_guide is
still empty.

For obvious reasons I'm not the best person to write about hurdles in
beginning GST hacking; I can review them and suggest solutions, but I
need someone else to write it in the first place.  Could anyone help?
It would be nice to have it before 3.0's out, since I hope to attract
more people with a stable release than with rc's.

Thanks,

Paolo



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Paolo Bonzini wrote:
> The hacker's guide at http://smalltalk.gnu.org/wiki/Hacker%27s_guide is
> still empty.

In fact, seems not to even exist yet :)

> For obvious reasons I'm not the best person to write about hurdles in
> beginning GST hacking;

What's the "charter" for the page? The link to it from the main wikipage
is "Working on the GNU Smalltalk standard packages".

I've written a noddy introductory sentence at the top of the page. Does
that fit the intent? If not, feel free to delete or edit it.

I'm unsure what to do about the warning re: filing of copyright
assignment that is mentioned on the "missing manual pages" page. Should
there be one on the Hacker's Guide? Would it discourage contributions
from random people?

Tony
--
 [][][] Tony Garnock-Jones     | Mob: +44 (0)7905 974 211
   [][] LShift Ltd             | Tel: +44 (0)20 7729 7060
 []  [] http://www.lshift.net/ | Email: [hidden email]


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> What's the "charter" for the page? The link to it from the main wikipage
> is "Working on the GNU Smalltalk standard packages".
>
> I've written a noddy introductory sentence at the top of the page. Does
> that fit the intent? If not, feel free to delete or edit it.

Not much, though your intentions are good FAQ candidates.  They will
remain in the wiki history, so you can overwrite them freely.

What I meant was things that border between "using GST" and
"contributing to GST":

- I think I found a bug in the kernel.  How do I try to fix it (assuming
one does not have write access to /usr/share/smalltalk/kernel, or does
not want to modify those files before having a definitive fix)?  How do
I work within the tarball's build tree?  How do I test it?  How do I
apply it to future images I generate (using ~/.st/pre.st or the
~/.st/kernel directory)?

Given your last patch, you probably can answer this.

- Likewise for standard packages.  A bit more complicated because one
has to regenerate the .star files within the build tree, and move them
to ~/.st manually from there.

- Basics of how to use gdb to debug GNU Smalltalk modules.  You also can
answer this, probably.

- How do I include a new package in GNU Smalltalk's tarball? (usually I
do it actually, people just point me to a tarball generated with
`gst-package --prepare'; later on we might refine the process,
especially after I switch to a better VCS).

> I'm unsure what to do about the warning re: filing of copyright
> assignment that is mentioned on the "missing manual pages" page. Should
> there be one on the Hacker's Guide? Would it discourage contributions
> from random people?

No, I don't believe one is necessary for the hacker's guide.

Paolo


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Paolo Bonzini wrote:
> especially after I switch to a better VCS).

Oho! How very interesting :-)

Personally, I've found darcs to work extremely well, and use it for most
of my outside-work hacking (and even some of the inside-work hacking). I
switched from tla to darcs sometime around the end of 2004.

We've experimented with monotone and mercurial, too, but darcs is the
winner for me.

Tony
--
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   [][] LShift Ltd             | Tel: +44 (0)20 7729 7060
 []  [] http://www.lshift.net/ | Email: [hidden email]


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On Fri, 2008-01-04 at 15:48 +0100, Paolo Bonzini wrote:
> > I'm unsure what to do about the warning re: filing of copyright
> > assignment that is mentioned on the "missing manual pages" page. Should
> > there be one on the Hacker's Guide? Would it discourage contributions
> > from random people?
>
> No, I don't believe one is necessary for the hacker's guide.

I added this note to explain the warning:

> A page without this note needs to be copyright-audited before
> inclusion to remove changes from contributors unwilling to file a
> copyright assignment or disclaimer.

The warning is there to discourage changes from such contributors, as
those would only interfere with the stated purpose of "missing manual
pages".  If you don't intend to include the Hacker's Guide in the
manual, the warning is unnecessary and undesirable.

--
The foremost obstacle standing in the way of the public's acceptance of
evolutionary theory is not a dearth of common sense. Instead, it is the
public's erroneous belief that common sense is a dependable guide to
evaluating the natural world.  --Scott O. Lilienfeld, SkI 5/2006

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Stephen Compall wrote:
Exactly.  The hacker's guide belongs on the Internet more than in a
formal package distribution.  It is meant for people that are going to
use a distro's packages, as much as (or even more than) for people who
follow the VCS archives.

Paolo


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