[H-GEN] Talk; Backups on Excalibur 25/05/09

[Russell Stuart]

On Sun, 2009-07-19 at 21:13 +1000, Daniel Devine wrote:
> Even though it was out in the open it was almost like it was done
> behind closed doors in terms of the pace and style it was done. It
> will be good to get an overview of the whole system. 

I am not sure if this was a criticism or a complement.  It is nice you
say it was done quickly but to me what should have been a simple thing
took an inordinate amount of time.

I approached it in the same way I approached everything else I think
needs doing.  I gave a broad overview of what I wanted to do at the end
of this post:

http://lists.humbug.org.au/pipermail/general/2009-June/027565.html

I then eagerly waited for responses, hoping someone might want to help
out.  There weren't any, so I proceeded to write the code myself.  At
each step of the way I posted long descriptions of what I was doing, and
of course all the code.  Again I hoped someone would put their 2c in.
No such luck.

Since no one was forthcoming, I crash tackled people at humbug meetings
and asked them to review what I had done - sitting beside them while
they read the code.  Remarkably everybody I did this to took it in good
humour, and did a very good job.  In particular I got the impression
Stephen did a through job of reviewing everything I sent him.

Anyway, the point of this ramble is I tried hard to make this inclusive
as possible.  Thus I am a bit startled to see you say it felt like it
was done behind closed doors.  It is also rather disappointing, as up
till now I thought I have done a reasonably good job at giving everyone
a chance to help me out.

So, Daniel, I have a question for you.  Given what I did didn't work
out, what should I have done?  Indeed, how should anybody attack a
project at Humbug if they want everyone to feel like they are welcome to
join in?