Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!bellcore!rutgers!psuvax1!psuvm.bitnet!cunyvm!ndsuvm1!ndsuvax!ncoverby
From: ncoverby@ndsuvax.UUCP (Glen Overby)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: Something I thought I would try
Keywords: complete collection, new idea, make it or break it
Message-ID: <1939@ndsuvax.UUCP>
Date: 8 Dec 88 05:32:08 GMT
Reply-To: ncoverby@plains.nodak.edu (Glen Overby)
Organization: North Dakota State University, Fargo
Lines: 36


As a self-appointed keeper of one of the Minix archives, as well as trying
to keep my own Minix system up-to-date with the fixes and features that come
across the network, I face a real software maintenance problem.  It's tough
to keep up with entropy.  This time around, I thought I would try something
different; a complete collection of changes.  In the past, I've saved each
posting in a separate file on the archive, with a name as descriptive as
possible.  On my own system, I have had a rather random collection of
changes applied to my system, and I've never really been happy with the
state of it.

I see the contributions from the net as falling into one of two categories:
Evolutionary and Mutations.  The Evolutionary changes do not modify the
system in significant ways, such as bug fixes.  These are also the changes
which I see as the most likely to be adopted in the next formal release of
Minix.  Mutations, on the other hand, come from the hacker worlds and may
make major changes to the system which could cause reliability problems but
do add significant features.

What I plan to do is make available on my archive server an (approximately)
monthly update of all files changed over the past month, as well as since
the base (Minix-PC 1.3) release.  I'll keep a log of all the changes made,
with credit to those who made them (mostly the From, Subject, and Message-ID
header lines, along with any other notes that the author makes in the
posting or I find in creating the new version).

I have my first collection of "evolutionary" changes on ndsuvm1.bitnet /
vm1.nodak.edu with the file names "FIXES EV1188[A-F]".  Please refer to the
archives section of the Minix Information Sheet I posted a few days ago for
instructions on accessing this archive site. I am very interested in hearing
opinions on how worthwhile the collection of changes is over random
individual changes.  Whether I continue this on a regular basis will depend
on the responses I get.  Any other constructive criticism is also welcomed.
--
Glen Overby     ncoverby@plains.nodak.edu
uunet!ndsuvax!ncoverby                  ncoverby@ndsuvax (Bitnet)



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