cvs commit: www/en/projects/ideas index.sgml

[Robert Watson]

On Fri, 16 Feb 2007, Kris Kennaway wrote:

> On Fri, Feb 16, 2007 at 05:12:33PM +0000, Joel Dahl wrote:
>> joel        2007-02-16 17:12:32 UTC
>>
>>   FreeBSD doc repository
>>
>>   Modified files:
>>     en/projects/ideas    index.sgml
>>   Log:
>>   Spring cleaning in preparation for Google SoC 2007.  Remove the following
>>   projects (based on discussions with netchild and rwatson):
>
>>   - FPU subsystem overhaul: Not suitable as a Google SoC project.
>>   - Process Checkpointing: Not suitable as a Google SoC project.
>
> Is this a "Google SoC projects list" or a "FreeBSD projects list"? IMO just 
> because something is not an appropriate SoC project doesn't mean it's not 
> suitable for someone more advanced to take on.

The FPU subsystem overhaul port has already been done by Attilio and is 
available as patches, I believe, and basically requires evaluation at this 
point.  That evaluation might be an appropriate project for someone to work on 
(although not for SoC).

I don't mind seeing process checkpointing on an overall project idea list, but 
I think we should replace the text there with something substantially more 
informative.  There's a significant research literature on how you do these 
sorts of things and I'm not sure we want to ask people to hack it up without 
figuring out what it is we actually want out of such a project.  Otherwise, 
patches for something we don't want will turn up and leave disappointment all 
around.  In particular, there are countless reasons why simply implementing 
"checkpointing" of processes in isolation is relatively meaningless, and if 
required, probably best done with involvement of the application rather than 
transparently in the OS.  In a clustered/distributed system, checkpointing 
provided by the OS is a far more meaningful concept.  If we're serious about 
wanting checkpointing, let's have a session at the developer summit at BSDCan 
on what it is we want and why, have a couple of people read into the research 
literature here, and re-add a checkpointing project once we have something a 
bit more directed to put up.

Robert N M Watson
Computer Laboratory
University of Cambridge