Index: share/man/man7/Makefile =================================================================== --- share/man/man7/Makefile +++ share/man/man7/Makefile @@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ #MISSING: eqnchar.7 ms.7 term.7 MAN= arch.7 \ ascii.7 \ + bikeshed.7 \ bsd.snmpmod.mk.7 \ build.7 \ c.7 \ Index: share/man/man7/bikeshed.7 =================================================================== --- /dev/null +++ share/man/man7/bikeshed.7 @@ -0,0 +1,238 @@ +.\" +.\"---------------------------------------------------------------------------- +.\""THE BEER-WARE LICENSE" (Revision 42): +.\"XXX wrote this file. As long as you retain this notice you +.\"can do whatever you want with this stuff. If we meet some day, and you think +.\"this stuff is worth it, you can buy me a beer in return. -XXX +.\"---------------------------------------------------------------------------- +.\" +.Dd April 1, 2022 +.Dt BIKESHED 7 +.Os +.Sh NAME +.Nm bikeshed +.Nd any colour will do +.Sh DESCRIPTION +.Bl -column +.It Subject: A bike shed (any colour will do) on greener grass... +.It From: Poul-Henning Kamp +.It Date: Sat, 02 Oct 1999 16:14:10 +0200 +.It Message-ID: <18238.938873650@critter.freebsd.dk> +.It Sender: phk@critter.freebsd.dk +.It Bcc: Blind Distribution List: ; +.It MIME-Version: 1.0 +.El +.Pp +[bcc'ed to committers, hackers] +.Pp +My last pamphlet was sufficiently well received that I was not +scared away from sending another one, and today I have the time +and inclination to do so. +.Pp +I've had a little trouble with deciding on the right distribution +of this kind of stuff, this time it is bcc'ed to committers and +hackers, that is probably the best I can do. +I'm not subscribed to hackers myself but more on that later. +.Pp +The thing which have triggered me this time is the "sleep(1) should +do fractional seconds" thread, which have pestered our lives for +many days now, it's probably already a couple of weeks, I can't +even be bothered to check. +.Pp +To those of you who have missed this particular thread: Congratulations. +.Pp +It was a proposal to make sleep(1) DTRT if given a non-integer +argument that set this particular grass-fire off. +I'm not going to say anymore about it than that, because it is a much +smaller item than one would expect from the length of the thread, and it +has already received far more attention than some of the *problems* +we have around here. +.Pp +The sleep(1) saga is the most blatant example of a bike shed +discussion we have had ever in +.Fx . +The proposal was well thought out, we would gain compatibility with +.Ox +and +.Nx , +and still be fully compatible with any code anyone +ever wrote. +.Pp +Yet so many objections, proposals and changes were raised and +launched that one would think the change would have plugged all +the holes in swiss cheese or changed the taste of Coca Cola or +something similar serious. +.Pp +"What is it about this bike shed?" Some of you have asked me. +.Pp +It's a long story, or rather it's an old story, but it is quite +short actually. +C. Northcote Parkinson wrote a book in the early 1960'ies, called +"Parkinson's Law", which contains a lot of insight into the dynamics of +management. +.Pp +You can find it on Amazon, and maybe also in your dads book-shelf, +it is well worth its price and the time to read it either way, +if you like Dilbert, you'll like Parkinson. +.Pp +Somebody recently told me that he had read it and found that only +about 50% of it applied these days. +That is pretty darn good I would say, many of the modern management +books have hit-rates a lot lower than that, and this one is 35+ years +old. +.Pp +In the specific example involving the bike shed, the other vital +component is an atomic power-plant, I guess that illustrates the +age of the book. +.Pp +Parkinson shows how you can go in to the board of directors and +get approval for building a multi-million or even billion dollar +atomic power plant, but if you want to build a bike shed you will +be tangled up in endless discussions. +.Pp +Parkinson explains that this is because an atomic plant is so vast, +so expensive and so complicated that people cannot grasp it, and +rather than try, they fall back on the assumption that somebody +else checked all the details before it got this far. +Richard P. Feynmann gives a couple of interesting, and very much to the +point, examples relating to Los Alamos in his books. +.Pp +A bike shed on the other hand. +Anyone can build one of those over a weekend, and still have time to +watch the game on TV. +So no matter how well prepared, no matter how reasonable you are with +your proposal, somebody will seize the chance to show that he is +doing his job, that he is paying attention, that he is *here*. +.Pp +In Denmark we call it "setting your fingerprint". +It is about personal pride and prestige, it is about being able to point +somewhere and say "There! *I* did that." +It is a strong trait in politicians, but present in most people given +the chance. +Just think about footsteps in wet cement. +.Pp +I bow my head in respect to the original proposer because he stuck +to his guns through this carpet blanking from the peanut gallery, +and the change is in our tree today. +I would have turned my back and walked away after less than a handful +of messages in that thread. +.Pp +And that brings me, as I promised earlier, to why I am not subscribed +to -hackers: +.Pp +I un-subscribed from -hackers several years ago, because I could +not keep up with the email load. +Since then I have dropped off several other lists as well for the very +same reason. +.Pp +And I still get a lot of email. +A lot of it gets routed to /dev/null by filters: People like Brett +Glass will never make it onto my screen, commits to documents in +languages I don't understand likewise, commits to ports as such. +All these things and more go the winter way without me ever even knowing +about it. +.Pp +But despite these sharp teeth under my mailbox I still get too much +email. +.Pp +This is where the greener grass comes into the picture: +.Pp +I wish we could reduce the amount of noise in our lists and I wish +we could let people build a bike shed every so often, and I don't +really care what colour they paint it. +.Pp +The first of these wishes is about being civil, sensitive and +intelligent in our use of email. +.Pp +If I could concisely and precisely define a set of criteria for +when one should and when one should not reply to an email so that +everybody would agree and abide by it, I would be a happy man, but +I am too wise to even attempt that. +.Pp +But let me suggest a few pop-up windows I would like to see +mail-programs implement whenever people send or reply to email +to the lists they want me to subscribe to: +.Pp + +------------------------------------------------------------+ + | Your email is about to be sent to several hundred thousand | + | people, who will have to spend at least 10 seconds reading | + | it before they can decide if it is interesting. At least | + | two man-weeks will be spent reading your email. Many of | + | the recipients will have to pay to download your email. | + | | + | Are you absolutely sure that your email is of sufficient | + | importance to bother all these people? | + | | + | [YES] [REVISE] [CANCEL] | + +------------------------------------------------------------+ +.Pp + +------------------------------------------------------------+ + | Warning: You have not read all emails in this thread yet. | + | Somebody else may already have said what you are about to | + | say in your reply. Please read the entire thread before | + | replying to any email in it. | + | | + | [CANCEL] | + +------------------------------------------------------------+ +.Pp + +------------------------------------------------------------+ + | Warning: Your mail program have not even shown you the | + | entire message yet. Logically it follows that you cannot | + | possibly have read it all and understood it. | + | | + | It is not polite to reply to an email until you have | + | read it all and thought about it. | + | | + | A cool off timer for this thread will prevent you from | + | replying to any email in this thread for the next one hour | + | | + | [Cancel] | + +------------------------------------------------------------+ +.Pp + +------------------------------------------------------------+ + | You composed this email at a rate of more than N.NN cps | + | It is generally not possible to think and type at a rate | + | faster than A.AA cps, and therefore you reply is likely to | + | incoherent, badly thought out and/or emotional. | + | | + | A cool off timer will prevent you from sending any email | + | for the next one hour. | + | | + | [Cancel] | + +------------------------------------------------------------+ +.Pp +The second part of my wish is more emotional. +Obviously, the capacities we had manning the unfriendly fire in the +sleep(1) thread, despite their many years with the project, never cared +enough to do this tiny deed, so why are they suddenly so enflamed +by somebody else so much their junior doing it? +.Pp +I wish I knew. +.Pp +I do know that reasoning will have no power to stop such "reactionaire +conservatism". +It may be that these people are frustrated about their own lack of +tangible contribution lately or it may be a bad case of "we're old and +grumpy, WE know how youth should behave". +.Pp +Either way it is very unproductive for the project, but I have no +suggestions for how to stop it. +The best I can suggest is to refrain from fuelling the monsters that +lurk in the mailing lists: Ignore them, don't answer them, forget +they're there. +.Pp +I hope we can get a stronger and broader base of contributors in +.Fx , +and I hope we together can prevent the grumpy old men +and the Brett Glasses of the world from chewing them up, spitting +them out and scaring them away before they ever get a leg to the +ground. +.Pp +For the people who have been lurking out there, scared away from +participating by the gargoyles: I can only apologise and encourage +you to try anyway, this is not the way I want the environment in +the project to be. +.Pp +Poul-Henning +.Sh SEE ALSO +.Xr sleep 1