RE: [MiNT] Clean AES

["Sven Karlsson" <svenka@it.kth.se>]

Hi,

> Does the Fenix developer list still exist?

Yes, at least I think so. It was/is maintained on Johan Klockars's computer.

The problem with it, however, was that very little was discussed on the list
no matter what specification or source code was released. There was a little
bit of traffic every once in a while but messages were more or less only
exchanged between those who actually wrote the specifications or in other
ways were in contact with me on a regularly basis.

The most striking thing was when I released the first versions of the
kernel. I think I got in total only 5 replies and all of them from people I
knew very well like Johan Klockars.

This is absolutely no criticism to the people on the dev list at all but
that convinced me once and for all that collective development only works in
projects were all developers basically sit in the same room or if you have a
working product that others can run and try. And still if you cannot pay
people their salaries you will have to do with fanatics like myself.

You could actually assemble the first releases of the Fenix kernel and do
test and those few who bothered to do that were very helpful indeed.

It was the same with the early versions of XaAES and certainly the same with
fVDI, correct me if I'm wrong Johan. Didn't you feel this in the early days
of oAESis too, Christer?

So I decided to stay silent until I had a system that everyone could try and
at least run gemdos applications on.

Besides, when I started on Fenix I wasn't strictly speaking a student
anymore. I had got my MSc and had started working. Still I carried on the
development although I got only 1-2 hours a day at best to spend on it. And
so when I was working the Eclipse and now on the Tempest I had to take those
spare hours and spend on Eclipse and the Tempest.

Now I have quit working and pursued graduate studies and I'm halfway to a
Ph.D. but still I have very little time to spare. Yesterday for instance I
stayed at work from 9 a.m. to 3.30 a.m. and I will probably have to do that
today as well. Of course, a large portion of that were wasted on writing
postings to this list. The lack of time also reflects the writing style of
my posts and mails. Given that I'm not a native English speaker and not very
good at English, I hope people can forgive that. I simply do not have time
to proof read and I don't like to write mails with only a few sentences
without any motivation.

All of this of course have delayed the development and there is really not
much I can do except working as hard as I can.

I'm not bitter at all although it might sound like that.

>Is Fenix available for mortals to try?

You can get the kernel source code and try it out but I won't send you a
binary as I don't see much point in that since you cannot run complete
gemdos applications on it yet.

I don't see much point in putting the source code on a web site either as
the sources are in a state of constant flux.

However, you are free to try it out and to send me bud reports or even work
on it yourself as long as you send patches back to me. And in fact I would
appreciate that.

> Fenix always seemed a bit "secret" to me.

Well, depends on what you mean by secret. I have always sent specifications
and design documents including source code to those who wanted it and
requested it. But they aren't on a web site.

Enough said.
 Sven