[SC.LUG] Damian Parker Is Right !

[Frank Mitchell]

Dear LUGs:

Yes obviously I arrived from the Windows Environment, like most people. My
reason for believing in Linux was a bit different though. It actually
started with my B-Tree Code. First I discovered it could index many
thousands of records on disk in the same time a Windows Application took to
get started. Then I tried it under Linux and discovered that every Random
Access operation took only 60% of the time it took under Windows.

No wonder Linux Applications outperform Windows equivalents. In commercial
use everybody needs Databases, and Linux seems destined to take over. This
is unconnected with the Open Source concept, but I suspect Microsoft knows
about it. They'd recognise yet another reason why people would choose Linux,
and therefore another factor which forces them to diversify.

Amusingly, I developed Trebus initially as a Windows Application using the
Windows API and Adaptec's ASPI Interface. This was the easiest way for me to
get started, which usually seems to be the difficult part. I converted it to
Posix after I'd got it to write CDs which were readable under Windows as
well as Linux.

This turned out to be a good strategy, because it allowed me to develop my
Anti Buffer Under-Run Mechanisms. I soon got Buffer Under-Runs under
Windows, but I have yet to experience one under Linux. Obviously
File-Opening is alot more efficient under Linux too.

I have a different attitude to modifying stuff obviously. I looked through
mkisofs and cdrecord, noticed the Authors didn't do things the way I would,
and concluded this was undoubtedly the cause of the problem ;-). Seriously,
these programs have been worked over by a number of people who disagree
about some fundamental issues. That can't be good.

And there's an awful lot of mkisofs and cdrecord. I could hardly understand
any of it, and I hate the whole business of adapting other people's Code
anyway. Surely these programs have got so big and complicated you can expect
something to go wrong, and further changes could only make things worse. I
decided that in the time it took to figure out mkisofs and cdrecord I could
write a CD Recording Utility of my own. So that's what I did. And if other
people ever work on it I hope it never gets to be like mkisofs and cdrecord.

I haven't just reinvented the wheel. If you experiment with Trebus you'll
discover it's entirely different from mkisofs & cdrecord. It performs
genuine On-The-Fly File CD Recording without using an ISO Image. Now just
when I've got it working to what I regard as a Proof-Of-Concept stage,
people talk about modifying it. For a Utility which is likely to be used for
Backup, I regard that as premature. First I want some User Feedback to
establish there isn't some issue which needs fixing rapidly.

Okay some people want to be able to adapt Source Code to their own needs.
But as Linux becomes more popular it's attracting people who aren't C
Programmers. They don't want to get a dysfunctional program with a
suggestion to fix it themselves. They want it to work, understandably, and
if it doesn't they'll pester the original Author. That's the experience of
Joerg Schilling and Peter Anvin. They get contacted by Users from all over
the World complaining about some version of their Software which wasn't
released in the form they intended.

So there's the problem: One person's Useful Modification can cause trouble
for somebody else. And if it gets Redistributed as Open Source allows, the
Original Author will get alot of flak from the many people World-Wide who
aren't C Programmers. You can't please everybody.

I don't suppose Trebus is likely to damage your equipment in practice. If
you own a Non-MMC SCSI-2 Drive or a DVD Writer which isn't intended for CDs,
you probably know about this already, irrespective of the Source Code. I
just thought it pays to be cautious. Trebus will of course run using Kernel
2.6 with ide-scsi enabled, though you may get a message saying "ide-scsi Is
Deprecated". I've been in touch with Alan Cox about ide-scsi, and he says it
will be Un-Deprecated after he's redeveloped it somewhat.

Probably you expect to be reassured that I'm not a Virus Writer very
shortly, and you don't believe I'm too incompetent about MMC either.
Otherwise you wouldn't urge me to participate in the cdrecord project.

Faictz Ce Que Vouldras: Frank Mitchell







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