Re: [boost] This AFIO review - a modest proposal

Subject: Re: [boost] This AFIO review - a modest proposal
From: Glen Fernandes (glen.fernandes_at_[hidden])
Date: 2015-08-23 15:05:53

On Sun, Aug 23, 2015, Niall Douglas wrote:
> Is acceptance of AFIO into Boost going to be judged on technical
> reasons, or politics, or "I don't understand the point of this
> library?"

Isn't  "I don't understand the point of this library" a valid reason
for rejection? This is where you may have compromised the review (in
my opinion):

- The documentation isn't very straightforward. To me, it feels like
it is all over the place
- The examples in the documentation (bar the first one) also aren't
very straightforward
- The coverage of APIBind and Monad just adds more distraction and
overall confusion

You have said some things which make people question whether they
really even need AFIO:
- On more than one occasion you claimed that nobody needs an
asynchronous file I/O library (and synchronous I/O coupled with some
concurrency facilities like threads are sufficient).
- That one needs AFIO not for performance (which you've demonstrated
that it doesn't offer)  but for safety, reliability, etc. This
alienates everyone who doesn't care about these things.

> As soon as I challenged the authority of certain people with an
> alternative vision I was going to be heckled and hasseled every step
> of the way onwards, both publicly and behind my back. That much
> became very evident very early on, and for the record I wish it
> weren't so, but you play the hand you're dealt and in every case it
> has been someone who attacked me first even if that wasn't publicly
> known, and I responded because nobody else was going to and unlike
> other internet communities, there is not a strong central leadership
> here so you are on your own to fight Darwinian style on every little
> thing, so you get all this conflict and bitterness and unpleasantness
> resulting. Which is a shame: it's wasted energy better spent on
> writing code. But I also don't like being bullied, I *particularly*
> don't like other people being bullied, and there was a lot of
> bullying here back in 2012-2013 (much of which I think was
> unintentional and just a product of then Boost culture). That happens
> far less frequently now, and I would like to hope some of that less
> adversarial more supportive culture is due to my efforts and
> responses, even if it made me enemies along the way.

I feel compelled to say: I started contributing to Boost in 2012 when
I was still at Microsoft and I observed none of the above: No
conflict, no bitterness, and no unpleasantness.
In fact I was encouraged enough by the experience to submit a library
for a review, and later contribute to many other libraries.

Glen