Re: [9fans] UN to fund linux for the 3rd world

[lucio@proxima.alt.za]

> They are in: kfs -- the kfs as it is now and as it was half a year ago cannot
> recover cleanly from a filesystem crash. I've modified the code so that it
> can. Network libraries -- a few buffer overruns in various buffers which I
> stubmled upon due to too long host names in my stress test; don't exactly
> remember what else but can try and go through the patches. My iTuner Plan9
> box kept hanging  until I found what I thought was a race related to fossil
> fs and changed the code so that it does not. It does not hang now.
> 
I, for one, would be very grateful to have such issues addressed.
Please let me encourage you to submit the fixes.  Or even just the
issues, if necessary.

> Smaller fixes include:
> 
>  rewriting the code that parses various configuration
> files so that I at least understand what is going on -- for example, the timezone
> file requires extra blank line in the end if numerical timezone adjustments
> are absent; and the zone name is of fixed length (3 characters), while the
> time zone I am in (AMST right now) is four characters long. ndb configuration
> parses insanely, and experience with Plan9 is actually what made me think
> that XML configuration is good -- the syntax is hard too read, but at least
> it is predictable -- you don't have to use acid to understand configuration.
> 
Again, I think I am not alone in wishing for a more robust Plan 9
distribution, please let the list know what is needed or desirable.

> My acme mail keeps stopping working after a few days, saying that it
> cannot execute a directory, I didn't yet find time to fix it, I will because I
> still need Plan9 working as an exotic platform for testing.
> 
I use acme mail almost exclusively and have had no such trouble,
perhaps it has already been fixed?  I have a niggling suspicion it
has.

> Wiki code, both the server and the acme plugin, was unsuitable for any
> language but English, and contained many bugs which rendered it unusable -
> I rewrote significant parts of the code to make it working.
> 
Etc.

This list has seen its share of arrogance displayed, but I'm not aware
that genuine concerns have ever been dismissed out of hand (give or
take such judgement calls as Rob Pike's total rejection of APE) and I
really would appreciate your submission of any and all failures,
preferably with fixes where possible.

Speaking purely for myself, but hoping not to be just a voice in the
wilderness.

++L