eric@snark.uu.net (Eric S. Raymond) (04/08/89)
There will be a bit more delay, I'm afraid. When I started the build on vu-vlsi
I discovered that the HOME compile option (the one that's supposed to let you
test live entirely from non-privileged directories) didn't really work.
I started to fix it and opened a can of worms; it turned out what was really
needed was the ability to do general run-time override of compiled
configuration defaults. Some testers (especially the `notes' people, who are
used to having such flexibility) had already asked for this.
So I'm writing that. It involves a major overhaul of Configure and the
initialization code in D.news/newsinit.c. After two days I'm about 3/4ths done;
the Configure mods are finished. I still have to implement the config-file
reader in newsinit.c and test the whole mess.
Since I have to test twice (once for the new code, once for the fast-startup
version with no runtime config) this is going to take another day or two. Then
I have to go back and test on the Pyramid over at vu-vlsi. So I think we're
looking at next Wednesday or thenabouts.
Working full-time on this I might be able to make it sooner, but I'm taking a
break this weekend. I'm going to go play mad scientist.
Really, I am. In a two-day-long live role-playing game called `Copabanana'.
Intrigue and skulduggery in a mythical Central American banana republic
swarming with generalissimos, mariachi players, Communist guerillas, tycoons,
superannuated Nazis, campesinos, drug smugglers, CIA agents, KGB agents,
jet-setters, archaeologists, and a quetzalcoatl in a pear tree. I've got
my lab coat and I've been practicing my sinister cackle. I'm ready.
I'll be taking my T5100 along, both as a mad-scientist prop and so I can
read my email. So I won't be out of touch; keep those MRs coming.
One good effect of this delay will be a massive simplification in the
configuration process. I've become aware that a lot of the things I'm
compiling in information about (especially in the mail configuration) are
easy and cheap to do run-time autoconfig for. There will be a *lot* fewer
compile-time switches in 7.5.
--
Eric S. Raymond (the mad mastermind of TMN-Netnews)
Email: eric@snark.uu.net CompuServe: [72037,2306]
Post: 22 S. Warren Avenue, Malvern, PA 19355 Phone: (215)-296-5718