2007/10/30, Miod Vallat :

quoted text
> > Is there a list similar to Linux kernel janitors also for OpenBSD? It's a list

> > of tasks for which you don't have to be experienced in the particular OS

> > internals to be able to complete them properly.

>

> No, there isn't.

>

> There are, however, two de-facto janitors for the OpenBSD kernels:

> martin@ and I. Those janitors, however, are experienced developers.

>

> Quite frankly, the idea of the janitor being a rookie scares the hell

> out of me. How can you trust people if these people admittedly do not

> know what they are doing, or why they are doing things one way and not

> another?

>

> That said, I have a huge todolist, as a brain dump in text format. A

> good quarter of it are simple tasks, which one may consider janitor

> level.

>

> I am even considering posting it to tech@ on a rainy day with a bit more

> details.

>

> I am adamant I'll find volunteers to work on the various items.

>

> But in order to be able to trust their work, I'll need to share

> knowledge and make sure these people are smart and bold enough to

> understand what they are doing.

>

> This is not a problem, per se. The problem is - as usual - time. There

> are items on my list I don't have time to do, which would take me N

> hours.

>

> If I need to talk to someone and ``hold his/her hand'' and guide

> him/her for 4*N hours, I've lost even more time.

>

> I am not reluctant to share my experience. I just don't have enough time

> to do this, and I can not guarantee I'll be able to devote those 4*N

> hours to someone to help him/her get started and work on nice things.

>

> That's a waste, because these janitoring tasks make you learn a lot of

> things in no time.

>

> But I don't want to betray the trust of people willing to help, as long

> as I am able to help them get started until they can fly by themselves,

> by not being there enough time in the beginning.

>

> Working on the kernel is not something you can do with a ``1 hour every

> week or every month'' rate. You need to dive for a longer time,

> especially at the beginning, because there are many things to get

> acquainted with. That's when you need as much support as possible. And

> that's the kind of support I, as an individual, can not provide.

>

> Miod

I had a similar problem at work.
After investing a lot of time training a new engineer to accomplish

[database, servers, network] administration tasks, taking his/her

hand, guiding him/her through the steps I want him/her to make things

the-way-I-want-it... they leave.
And I have to start all over again with the next engineer. I was tired of that.
The last time, I made her write the documentation in Docbook,

foolproof guides, for the next engineer. Problem solved, more or less.
Marc Espie is so good at that for example. Anybody with basic skills

and enough interest can port software to OpenBSD.
My point is that maybe instead of tutoring a person, time is better

used writing documentation or guidelines about where to start, what

steps to follow and how to do things the-way-you-want. These documents

will reach more people and have more impact than tutoring someone.
I would bring art@ to the discussion too, who has been reluctant to

tutoring people but that has a lot of knowledge that would be a pitty

that he gets hit by a truck before sharing some! ;-)
Or probably the documentation of the kernel itself as a project would

help. [Recalling...] which was Espie's idea sometime ago. Well Karel,

you may start with this.
Just my 20 centavos.
--

Gerardo Santana