[9fans] Publish and be damned.

[Lucio De Re <lucio@proxima.alt.za>]

I have raised that cry before, but I seem to be just a voice in
the wilderness.  However, I can offer a public CVS repository for
those who, like me, think that incomplete source is nothing to be
ashamed of.

 From monitoring this list, both forsyth and rsc have an endless
supply of unfinished tools that I would be thrilled to examine for
examples of interesting programming in Plan 9.

I'd also like to see publication of those bits of second edition
Plan 9 that can be made available without additional licence
restrictions.

Basically, I'll give anonymous read access to the CVS repository
to anyone who's interested, and write access to anyone willing to
contribute and monitor a particular module.  I'll configure CVS to
suit these "moderators", even provide mailing list capabilities
where required (I'd rather use private C News groups and gateways,
but I need to set things up properly first).

Anyway, if there is enough interest I'll set the CVS repository up
and make occasional noises about it on this list (or leave it to
the Plan 9 FAQ to make the relevant noises).

I know this sounds terribly Open Source-ish, but I am a firm believer
that knowledge best builds on knowledge and I wish I could quote
Dijkstra where he bemoans the fact that too often in programming
only the end results of the thinking processes are disclosed, where
the important and more useful details lie with how the results were
reached.

++L

PS: the bandwidth to the CVS repository is not on par with what US
Internet users may be comfortable with; unfortunately, that is beyond
my ability to influence.