[sldev] [Policy] C++ N00bs exploring the client source code?

[Bruce Tong]

I'll just say you're not alone and that I appreciate what may seem
like ignorant (not stupid) beginner's questions.

We're in similar states, Dale. My C background is about 5 years stale
and I usually worked on server-side stuff. There is ANSI C++ syntax
that I don't recall ever seeing before in the source code and I feel
kind of embarrased to admit that. I mean, I wrote code in C for many
years before taking jobs that used Java. All the various issues about
rendering graphic images and the various libraries they use are all
completely foreign.

Anyways, as far as I'm concerned, ask away. Being a (relative) noob is
temporary.

SL: Wilton Lundquist

On Thu, Jun 19, 2008 at 1:51 PM, Dale Mahalko <dmahalko at gmail.com> wrote:
> Cross-posting from the Open Source Meeting Agenda page:
>
>
> How do you (Rob / LL staff / and the rest of the SL-Dev professionals)
> feel about relative C++ noobs (*waves!*) jumping headfirst into the
> client source to explore it? Do you prefer that only people with years
> of prior C++ experience try to be involved with the open source
> project? ("Come back when you've actually used a multimap in a
> program!")
>
> I am wondering if showing up at the open source meeting and asking
> what may seem as "stupid beginner's questions" would be perceived as
> annoying and a waste of your / LL-Staffs' professional time. (For
> example, why is ll_apr_file used for open/read/write/etc rather than
> just apr_file? Is llapr.cpp a shim library, to make transitioning from
> the LLLFS easier? And IS the LLLFS being replaced by the APR? I can't
> find any official coding policy or notes pointing in that direction.
> Is it okay to discuss this in SLDev or not?)
>
> My interest and involvement in the source is mostly because I want the
> VFS expunged, and the overall caching performance improved... but
> since this coding task is apparently not high on anyone else's agenda,
> I guess there's room for a QBASIC / LSL2 / Apple II 6502-assembly
> programmer to explore the issue. (Note, the only thing I've ever
> threaded is a needle.)
>
> - Scalar Tardis / Dale Mahalko

-- 
Bruce Tong
Software Engineer
Office of Information Technology
Ohio University