"Jeremy C. Reed" <reed@reedmedia.net> writes:

>
> While I agree that discussion should be public, you should also consider 
> that also. As you planned and actually started to work on this, you could 
> have shared your plans (not necessarily code) to the appropriate tech-* 
> list or here at current-users. Or you could mention your plans in a PR bug 
> report.

We've done all that.  We've even tried to discuss these things on the
#netbsd-devel and #netbsd-code IRC channels, in the hope that word
would get to the right people.

>
> Also it is important to note that private emails sent to NetBSD 
> individuals may be overlooked, lost and/or responses delayed. Using a 
> public list or PR to publicly note your plans may help. (Nevertheless, the 
> official NetBSD should mention significant changes, but end-user 
> developers don't have to of course.)

To be frank, no, it doesn't help. The arm related list is more or less
dead. The userland lists seem to be more or less ignored. The only
tech lists of interest to us where we get any feedback are tools and
kernel.

When we first started the OMAP port, we posted patches to the arm list
for review. We got zero feedback. The only reply was Christos
suggesting we send-pr the patches so that they wouldn't get lost.

We have never once heard back from the arm port maintainer. Not in
port arm. Not in response to prs filed against arm. Not in reply to
individual emails.

As far as this being unusual, it seems to happen about once a month
that we find out about some change that effects us by reading checkin
comments. Most of the time they're small, and it's ok to find out that
way, but this is not the first time that something this large has only
come to our attention through the cvs tree.