[opensolaris-summit] OS Summit topic proposal

[Alan DuBoff]

On Fri, 21 Sep 2007, Garrett D'Amore wrote:

> This wasn't a complaint.  Just a statement... STREAMs programming is
> very different from most other kinds of programming, and requires a
> unique mindset.  As it was, I think Seth probably tried to cover too
> much too quickly.

Sure, but it was more of an overview session, not a hands on training 
course on writing device drivers. No fault of Seth for that, yes, there 
was quite a bit of information to absorb. I know we're in agreement on 
this.

> I believe a series of lectures, perhaps posted on-line, would be
> better.  If I were designing a kernel class today, I'd break it up into
> a series of lectures like this:

Sure, I think that I stated something to the safe effect.

> *) Simple kernel mode programming/fundamentals.
> *) Autoconfiguration.
> *) Character and Block Drivers
> *) Kernel synchronization and threadng
> *) 32- versus 64-bit programming
> *) Kernel statistics facility
> *) STREAMs drivers
> 5) Network drivers
> *) SCSI HBA drivers (SCSA)
> *) USB drivers
> *) Dynamic Reconfiguration
> *) Power management
> *) Testing and debugging

These are all good and it would seem we get back to a similar course that 
Max Brunning currently teaches at SunU.

>> That would be excellent, where would you do that? Not for the summit,
>> is it? I mean, that really doesn't fit in with the topics at the
>> summit, the summit will most likely be discussing how we could
>> incorporate drivers that are not in OpenSolaris today, not write new
>> ones, but maybe I'm mistaken.
>
> I dunno.  I was just offering.  Its looking like the Summit is going to
> be about governance and community topics, and have little to do with
> code... to the point that I'm not sure if any actual developers are
> going other than myself.

I think that was always the intention. Again, I could be wrong.

> That bothers me somewhat.  If there is a big disconnect between the
> engineers doing the work, and the folks who are going to be making
> policy, we're setting ourselves up for heartache later.  It somehow
> doesn't feel right that a bunch of folks who aren't actually involved
> intimately with the practice of engineering should be determining
> exclusively the processes which engineers must follow.

You wouldn't be alone in this feeling, I suspect there are quite a few 
folks in engineering that are still scratching their heads trying to 
figure out what exactly Indiana is. From the engineering standpoint, Sun 
hired Ian and they all of the sudden started hearing things that 
supposedly they were working on. I believe Ian is trying to do the best he 
can in the situation he's also been put in, but that doesn't help the 
communication between those folks involved in that and the actual 
engineers.

> Of course, if this is just a pow-wow of marketing type folks who are
> mostly interested in figuring how to *market* OpenSolaris to the rest of
> the world, then maybe there's not much point in folks who are mostly
> interested in development from attending.

I don't think it's fair to call it marketing type folks, there will be 
quite a few engineers there who are involved in pieces that will be used 
for Indiana, several of which were already under development before anyone 
heard light of Indiana.

> (And that would, for the most
> part, include me.   Don't get me wrong, I'm as keen as the next person
> to improve OpenSolaris adoption, but talking about web pages and
> marketing priorities just doesn't really turn me on.)

I don't think it's just about Solaris adoption, I think it's about 
figuring out a way that those marketing types and engineering types such 
as yourself to find a way to make all of this work, and be able to create 
a product that can be distributed in a given timeframe. Again, maybe I'm 
offbase on this concept as well, I'm just grasping what exactly Indiana is 
myself, and the definition has been a moving target.

> See above.  Probably there are a lot of sessions.  I don't think we have
> any other venue atm, but maybe I'm mistaken?

We have Tech Days that travels around, and does present similar session, 
most of similar length however.

This is something that might be worth talking to Chris Atwood about, he's 
in charge of training at Sun, and offering courses for that purpose (i.e., 
SunU).

--

Alan DuBoff - Solaris x86 IHV/OEM Group