aboriginal: www/about.html annotate

annotate www/about.html @ 1826:1ba206595781 draft

Update build-stages.html documentation.

author	Rob Landley <rob@landley.net>
date	Wed, 09 Dec 2015 15:28:51 -0600
parents	b27851ab2795
children

rev	line source
1120 34fb47276e30 Fluff up the "about" page a bit. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1050 diff changeset	1 <html>
1580 455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	2 <title>Ab Origine - Latin, "From the beginning".</title>
1120 34fb47276e30 Fluff up the "about" page a bit. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1050 diff changeset	3 <body>
881 0da87d1ef528 Update the web page. Put the left-side nav bar back, move about page to "about.html" and make news.html the default index. Add architectures page. Note that IRC discussion is now on #edev. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 879 diff changeset	4 <!--#include file="header.html" -->
0da87d1ef528 Update the web page. Put the left-side nav bar back, move about page to "about.html" and make news.html the default index. Add architectures page. Note that IRC discussion is now on #edev. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 879 diff changeset	5
1580 455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	6 <b><h1>Ab Origine - Latin, "From the beginning".</h1></b>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	7
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	8 <table border=1 width=100%><tr><td bgcolor="#C0C0FF">
1618 ff283fe54626 Web page tweaks: put "start here" in header, slightly reword menu entries, use style sheet hackery to make blank lines after lists go away, and remove spanish translation about the about page that went 404. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1597 diff changeset	9 <ul style="margin-bottom:0px;">
1580 455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	10 <li>Build the simplest linux system capable of compiling itself.</li>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	11 <li>Cross compile it to every target supported by QEMU.</li>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	12 <li>Boot it under QEMU (or real hardware).</li>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	13 <li>Build/test everything else natively on target.</li>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	14 </ul>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	15 </td></tr></table>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	16
1050 333c8f799302 Update lots and lots of web pages for the project name change to Aboriginal Linux. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1032 diff changeset	17 <b><h1><a href=documentation.html>What is Aboriginal Linux?</a></h1></b>
71 f55a1dba637d News ticker. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 70 diff changeset	18
1580 455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	19 <h2>Creating system images.</h2>
1120 34fb47276e30 Fluff up the "about" page a bit. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1050 diff changeset	20
1580 455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	21 <p>Aboriginal Linux is a shell script that builds the smallest/simplest
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	22 linux system capable of rebuilding itself
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	23 from source code. This currently requires seven packages: linux,
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	24 busybox, uClibc, binutils, gcc, make, and bash. The results are packaged into
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	25 a system image with shell scripts to boot it under
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	26 <a href=http://qemu.org>QEMU</a>. (It works fine on real hardware too.)</p>
1120 34fb47276e30 Fluff up the "about" page a bit. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1050 diff changeset	27
1580 455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	28 <p>The build supports most <a href=architectures.html>architectures</a>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	29 QEMU can <a href=screenshots>emulate</a> (x86, arm, powerpc,
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	30 mips, sh4, sparc...). The build runs as a normal user (no root access required)
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	31 and should run on any reasonably current distro, downloading and compiling its
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	32 own prerequisites from source (including cross compilers).</p>
1120 34fb47276e30 Fluff up the "about" page a bit. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1050 diff changeset	33
1580 455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	34 <p>The build is modular; each section can be bypassed or replaced if desired.
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	35 The build offers a number of <a href=/hg/aboriginal/file/tip/config>configuration
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	36 options</a>, but if you don't want to run the build yourself you can download
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	37 <a href=downloads/binaries>binary system images</a> to play with, built for
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	38 each target with the default options.</p>
1120 34fb47276e30 Fluff up the "about" page a bit. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1050 diff changeset	39
1781 b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	40 <p>(Note: the goal of the 2.0 release is to <a href=#migrate>migrate</a>
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	41 from busybox, uClibc, and gcc/binutils to toybox, musl-libc, and
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	42 lvm/lld.)</p>
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	43
1826 1ba206595781 Update build-stages.html documentation. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1781 diff changeset	44 <a name="sysimage_use">
1580 455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	45 <h2>Using system images.</h2>
1120 34fb47276e30 Fluff up the "about" page a bit. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1050 diff changeset	46
1580 455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	47 <p>Each system image tarball contains a wrapper script <b>./run-emulator.sh</b>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	48 which boots it to shell prompt. (This requires the emulator QEMU to be
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	49 installed on the host.) The emulated system's /dev/console is routed to stdin
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	50 and stdout of the qemu process, so you can just type at it and log the output
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	51 with "tee". Exiting the shell causes the emulator to shut down and exit.</p>
1132 ea4fd1dd8c3b Fluff up propaganda page. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1120 diff changeset	52
1580 455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	53 <p>The wrapper script <b>./dev-environment.sh</b> calls
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	54 run-emulator.sh with extra options to tell QEMU to allocate more memory,
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	55 attach 2 gigabytes of persistent storage to /home in the emulated system,
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	56 and to hook distcc up to the cross compiler to move the heavy lifting of
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	57 compilation outside the emulator (if distccd and the appropriate cross
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	58 compiler are available on the host system).</p>
1132 ea4fd1dd8c3b Fluff up propaganda page. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1120 diff changeset	59
1580 455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	60 <p>The wrapper script
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	61 <b>./native-build.sh</b> calls dev-environment.sh with a
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	62 <a href=control-images>build control image</a> attached to /mnt in the emulated
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	63 system, allowing the init script to run /mnt/init instead of
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	64 launching a shell prompt, providing fully automated native builds. The "static
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	65 tools" (dropbear, strace) and "linux from scratch" (a chroot tarball) builds
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	66 are run each release as part of testing, with the results <a href=bin>uploaded
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	67 to the website</a>.</p>
1132 ea4fd1dd8c3b Fluff up propaganda page. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1120 diff changeset	68
1580 455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	69 <p>For more information, see <a href=FAQ.html#where_start>Getting Started</a>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	70 or the presentation slides
1700 5a57035b1946 Replace old broken presentation link with new one in places that mention it other than the nav bar. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1626 diff changeset	71 <a href=https://speakerdeck.com/landley/developing-for-non-x86-targets-using-qemu>Developing for non-x86 Targets using QEMU</a>.</p>
388 3eeb77934265 Add project summary page to website, moving news to its own page. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 384 diff changeset	72
1050 333c8f799302 Update lots and lots of web pages for the project name change to Aboriginal Linux. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1032 diff changeset	73 <b><h1><a href=downloads>Downloading Aboriginal Linux</a></h1></b>
379 2925f71bce99 Announce 0.9.0 release. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 347 diff changeset	74
1120 34fb47276e30 Fluff up the "about" page a bit. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1050 diff changeset	75 <table border=1><tr><td bgcolor="#c0c0ff">
34fb47276e30 Fluff up the "about" page a bit. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1050 diff changeset	76 <p><a href=downloads/binaries>Prebuilt binary images</a> are available
34fb47276e30 Fluff up the "about" page a bit. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1050 diff changeset	77 for each target, based on the current Aboriginal Linux release. This
34fb47276e30 Fluff up the "about" page a bit. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1050 diff changeset	78 includes cross compilers, native compilers, root filesystems suitable for
34fb47276e30 Fluff up the "about" page a bit. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1050 diff changeset	79 chroot, and system images for use with QEMU.</p>
34fb47276e30 Fluff up the "about" page a bit. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1050 diff changeset	80 </td><tr></table>
379 2925f71bce99 Announce 0.9.0 release. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 347 diff changeset	81
1580 455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	82 <p>The <a href=downloads/binaries/README>binary README</a> describes each
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	83 tarball. The <a href=news.html>release notes</a> explain recent changes.</p>
1120 34fb47276e30 Fluff up the "about" page a bit. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1050 diff changeset	84
34fb47276e30 Fluff up the "about" page a bit. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1050 diff changeset	85 <p>Even if you plan to build your own images from source code, you should
34fb47276e30 Fluff up the "about" page a bit. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1050 diff changeset	86 probably start by familiarizing yourself with the (known working) binary
34fb47276e30 Fluff up the "about" page a bit. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1050 diff changeset	87 releases.</p>
279 2966ed8d6803 Belated release announcement for 0.3.1. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 245 diff changeset	88
1580 455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	89 <b><h1><a href=/hg/aboriginal>Development</a></h1></b>
1120 34fb47276e30 Fluff up the "about" page a bit. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1050 diff changeset	90
34fb47276e30 Fluff up the "about" page a bit. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1050 diff changeset	91 <table border=1><tr><td bgcolor="#c0c0ff">
34fb47276e30 Fluff up the "about" page a bit. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1050 diff changeset	92 <p>To build a system image for a target, download the
34fb47276e30 Fluff up the "about" page a bit. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1050 diff changeset	93 <a href=downloads>Aboriginal Linux source code</a> and run "./build.sh"
34fb47276e30 Fluff up the "about" page a bit. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1050 diff changeset	94 with the name of the target to build (or with no arguments to list available
34fb47276e30 Fluff up the "about" page a bit. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1050 diff changeset	95 targets). See the "config" file in the source for various environment
34fb47276e30 Fluff up the "about" page a bit. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1050 diff changeset	96 variables you can export to control the build. See the
34fb47276e30 Fluff up the "about" page a bit. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1050 diff changeset	97 <a href=README>source README</a> for additional usage instructions, and the
34fb47276e30 Fluff up the "about" page a bit. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1050 diff changeset	98 <a href=news.html>release notes</a> for recent changes.</p>
34fb47276e30 Fluff up the "about" page a bit. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1050 diff changeset	99 </td></tr></table>
34fb47276e30 Fluff up the "about" page a bit. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1050 diff changeset	100
34fb47276e30 Fluff up the "about" page a bit. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1050 diff changeset	101 <p>Aboriginal Linux is a build system for creating bootable system images,
34fb47276e30 Fluff up the "about" page a bit. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1050 diff changeset	102 which can be configured to run either on real hardware or under emulators
34fb47276e30 Fluff up the "about" page a bit. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1050 diff changeset	103 (such as <a href=http://qemu.org>QEMU</a>). It is intended to reduce or even
34fb47276e30 Fluff up the "about" page a bit. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1050 diff changeset	104 eliminate the need for further cross compiling, by doing all the cross
34fb47276e30 Fluff up the "about" page a bit. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1050 diff changeset	105 compiling necessary to bootstrap native development on a given target.
34fb47276e30 Fluff up the "about" page a bit. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1050 diff changeset	106 (That said, most of what the build does is create and use cross
34fb47276e30 Fluff up the "about" page a bit. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1050 diff changeset	107 compilers: we cross compile so you don't have to.)</p>
34fb47276e30 Fluff up the "about" page a bit. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1050 diff changeset	108
34fb47276e30 Fluff up the "about" page a bit. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1050 diff changeset	109 <p>The build system is implemented as a series of bash scripts which run to
34fb47276e30 Fluff up the "about" page a bit. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1050 diff changeset	110 create the various binary images. The "build.sh" script invokes the other
34fb47276e30 Fluff up the "about" page a bit. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1050 diff changeset	111 stages in the correct order, but the stages are designed to run individually.
34fb47276e30 Fluff up the "about" page a bit. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1050 diff changeset	112 (Nothing build.sh itself does is actually important.)</p>
34fb47276e30 Fluff up the "about" page a bit. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1050 diff changeset	113
34fb47276e30 Fluff up the "about" page a bit. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1050 diff changeset	114 <p>Aboriginal Linux is designed as a series of orthogonal layers (the stages
34fb47276e30 Fluff up the "about" page a bit. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1050 diff changeset	115 called by build.sh), to increase flexibility and minimize undocumented
34fb47276e30 Fluff up the "about" page a bit. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1050 diff changeset	116 dependencies. Each layer can be either omitted or replaced with something
34fb47276e30 Fluff up the "about" page a bit. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1050 diff changeset	117 else. The list of layers is in the <a href=README>source README</a>.</p>
34fb47276e30 Fluff up the "about" page a bit. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1050 diff changeset	118
1580 455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	119 <p>The project maintains a <a href=/hg/aboriginal>development repository</a>
388 3eeb77934265 Add project summary page to website, moving news to its own page. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 384 diff changeset	120 using the Mercurial source control system. This includes RSS feeds for
1580 455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	121 <a href=/hg/aboriginal/rss-log>each checkin</a>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	122 and for <a href=/hg/aboriginal/rss-tags>new releases</a>.</p>
127 ee697f109828 Update web page for 0.2.0. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 90 diff changeset	123
1050 333c8f799302 Update lots and lots of web pages for the project name change to Aboriginal Linux. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1032 diff changeset	124 <p>Questions about Aboriginal Linux should be addressed to the project's
1781 b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	125 mailing list, or to the maintainer (rob at landley dot net) who has a
1580 455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	126 <a href=/notes.html>blog</a> that often includes
1050 333c8f799302 Update lots and lots of web pages for the project name change to Aboriginal Linux. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1032 diff changeset	127 notes about ongoing Aboriginal Linux development.</p>
1580 455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	128
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	129 <b><h1>Design goals</h1></b>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	130
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	131 <p>In addition to implementing the above, Aboriginal Linux tries to
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	132 support a number of use cases:</p>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	133
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	134 <table border=1><tr><td bgcolor="#c0c0ff">
1618 ff283fe54626 Web page tweaks: put "start here" in header, slightly reword menu entries, use style sheet hackery to make blank lines after lists go away, and remove spanish translation about the about page that went 404. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1597 diff changeset	135 <ul style="margin-bottom:0px;">
1580 455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	136 <li>Eliminate the need for cross compiling</li>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	137 <li>Allow package maintainers to reproduce/fix bugs on more architectures</li>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	138 <li>Automated cross-platform regression testing and portability auditing.</li>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	139 <li>Use current vanilla packages, even on obscure targets.</li>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	140 <li>Provide a minimal self-hosting development environment.</li>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	141 <li>Cleanly separate layers</li>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	142 <li>Document how to put together a development environment.</li>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	143 </td></tr></table>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	144
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	145 <ul>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	146 <li><p><b>Eliminate the need for cross compiling</b></p></li>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	147
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	148 <p>We cross compile so you don't have to: Moore's Law has
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	149 made native compiling under emulation a reasonable approach to cross-platform
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	150 support.</p>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	151
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	152 <p>If you need to scale up development, Aboriginal Linux lets you throw
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	153 hardware at the scalability problem instead of engineering time, using distcc
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	154 acceleration and distributed package build clusters to compile entire
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	155 distribution repositories on racks of cheap x86 cloud servers.</p>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	156
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	157 <p>But using distcc to call outside the emulator to a cross compiler still
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	158 acts like a native build. It does not reintroduce the
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	159 complexities of cross compiling, such as keeping multiple
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	160 compiler/header/library combinations straight, or preventing configure from
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	161 confusing the system you build on with the system you deploy on.</p>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	162 </li>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	163
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	164 <li><p><b>Allow package developers and maintainers to reproduce and fix bugs
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	165 on architectures they don't have access to or experience with.</b></p>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	166
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	167 <p>Bug reports can include a link to a system image and a
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	168 reproduction sequence (wget source, build, run this test). This provides
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	169 the maintainer both a way to demonstrate the issue, and a native
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	170 development environment in which to build and test their fix.</p>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	171
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	172 <p>No special hardware is required for this, just an open source emulator
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	173 (generally QEMU) and a system image to run under it. Use wget to fetch your
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	174 source, configure and make your package as normal using standard tool names
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	175 (strip, ld, as, etc), even build and test on a laptop in an airplane
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	176 without internet access (10.0.2.2 is qemu's alias for the host's 127.0.0.1.).</p>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	177 </li>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	178
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	179 <li><p><b>Automated cross-platform regression testing and portability auditing.</b></p>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	180
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	181 <p>Aboriginal Linux lets you build the same package across multiple
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	182 architectures, and run the result immediately inside the emulator. You can
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	183 even set up a cron job to build and test regular repository snapshots of a
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	184 package's development version automatically, and report regressions when
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	185 they're fresh, when the developers remember what they did, and when
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	186 there are few recent changes that may have introduced the bug.</p></li>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	187
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	188 <li><p><b>Use current vanilla packages, even on obscure targets.</b></p>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	189
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	190 <p>Nonstandard hardware often receives less testing than common desktop and
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	191 server platforms, so regressions accumulate. This can lead to a vicious cycle
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	192 where everybody sticks with private forks of old versions because making the
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	193 new ones work is too much trouble, and the new ones don't work because nobody's
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	194 testing and fixing them. The farther you fall behind, the harder it is to
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	195 catch up again, but only the most recent version accepts new patches, so
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	196 even the existing fixes don't go upstream. Worst of all, working in private
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	197 forks becomes the accepted norm, and developers stop even trying to get
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	198 their patches upstream.</p>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	199
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	200 <p>Aboriginal Linux uses the same (current) package versions across all
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	201 architectures, in as similar a configuration as possible, and with as few
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	202 patches as we can get away with. We (intentionally) can't upgrade a package
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	203 for one target without upgrading it for all of them, so we can't put off
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	204 dealing with less-interesting targets.</p>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	205
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	206 <p>This means any supported target stays up to date with current packages in
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	207 unmodified "vanilla" form, providing an easy upgrade path to the next
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	208 version and the ability to push your own changes upstream relatively
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	209 easily.</b></p>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	210 </li>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	211
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	212 <li><p><b>Provide a minimal self-hosting development environment.</b></p></li>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	213
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	214 <blockquote><p>Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add,
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	215 but when there is nothing left to take away." - Antoine de Saint Exupery</p>
1050 333c8f799302 Update lots and lots of web pages for the project name change to Aboriginal Linux. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1032 diff changeset	216 </blockquote>
881 0da87d1ef528 Update the web page. Put the left-side nav bar back, move about page to "about.html" and make news.html the default index. Add architectures page. Note that IRC discussion is now on #edev. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 879 diff changeset	217
1580 455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	218 <p>Most build environments provide dozens of packages, ignoring the questions
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	219 "do you actually need that?" and "what's it for?" in favor of offering
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	220 rich functionality.</p>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	221
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	222 <p>Aboriginal Linux provides the smallest, simplest starting point capable
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	223 of rebuilding itself under itself, and of bootstrapping up to build arbitrarily
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	224 complex environments (such as Linux From Scratch) by building and installing
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	225 additional packages. (The one package we add which is not strictly required
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	226 for this, distcc, is installed it in its own subdirectory which is only
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	227 optionally added to the $PATH.)</p>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	228
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	229 <p>This minimalist approach makes it possible to regression test for
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	230 environmental dependencies. Sometimes new releases of packages simply won't
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	231 work without perl, or zlib, or some other dependency that previous versions
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	232 didn't have, not because they meant to but because they were never tested in
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	233 a build environment that didn't have them, so the dependency leaked in.</p>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	234
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	235 <p>By providing a build environment that contains only the bare essentials
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	236 (relying on you to build and install whatever else you need), Aboriginal
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	237 Linux lets you document exactly what dependencies packages actually require,
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	238 figure out what functionality the additional packages provide, and measure
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	239 the costs and benefits of the extra code.</p>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	240
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	241 <p>(Note: the command logging wrapper
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	242 <a href=/aboriginal/FAQ.html#debug_logging>record-commands.sh</a> can
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	243 actually show which commands were used out of the $PATH when building any
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	244 package.)</p>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	245 </li>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	246
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	247 <li><p><b>Cleanly separate layers.</b></p>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	248
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	249 <p>The entire build is designed to let you use only the parts of it you want,
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	250 and skip or replace the rest. The top level "build.sh" script calls other
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	251 scripts in sequence, each of which is designed to work independently.</p>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	252
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	253 <p>The only place package versions are mentioned is "download.sh", the rest
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	254 of the build is version-agnostic. All it does is populate the "packages"
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	255 directory, and if you want to provide your own you never need to run this
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	256 script.</p>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	257
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	258 <p>The "host-tools.sh" script protects the build from variations in the host
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	259 system, both by building known versions of command line tools (in build/host)
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	260 and adjusting the $PATH to point only to that directory, and by unsetting
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	261 all environment variables that aren't in a whitelist. If you want to
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	262 use the host system's unfiltered environment instead, just skip running
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	263 host-tool.sh.</p>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	264
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	265 <p>If you supply your own cross compilers in the $PATH (with the prefixes the
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	266 given target expects), you can skip the simple-cross-compiler.sh command.
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	267 Similarly you can provide your own simple root filesystem, your own native
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	268 compiler, or your own kernel image. You can use your own script to package
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	269 them if you like.</p>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	270 </li>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	271
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	272 <li><p><b>Document how to put together a development environment.</b></p>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	273
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	274 <p>The build system is designed to be readable. That's why it's written in
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	275 Bash (rather than something more powerful like Python): so it can act as
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	276 documentation. Each shell script collects the series of commands you need
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	277 to run in order to configure, build, and install the appropriate packages,
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	278 in the order you need to install them in to satisfy their dependencies.</p>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	279
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	280 <p>The build is organized as a series of orthogonal stages. These are called
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	281 in order from build.sh, but may be run (and understood) independently.
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	282 Dependencies between them are kept to a minimum, and stages which depend on
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	283 the output of previous stages document this at the start of the file.</p>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	284
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	285 <p>The scripts are also extensively commented to explain why they
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	286 do what they do, and there's design documentation on the website.</p>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	287 </li>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	288 </ul>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	289
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	290 <b><h1>What's next?</h1></b>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	291
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	292 <p>Now that the 1.0 release is out, what are the project's new goals?</p>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	293
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	294 <table border=1><tr><td bgcolor="#c0c0ff">
1618 ff283fe54626 Web page tweaks: put "start here" in header, slightly reword menu entries, use style sheet hackery to make blank lines after lists go away, and remove spanish translation about the about page that went 404. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1597 diff changeset	295 <ul style="margin-bottom:0px;">
1781 b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	296 <li><a href="#migrate">Move from busybox, uclibc, and gcc/binutils to toybox, musl, and llvm.</a></li>
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	297 <li><a href="#hairball">Untangle distro build build system hairballs into distinct layers.</a></li>
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	298 <li><a href="#selfhost">Make Android self-hosting</a></li>
1580 455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	299 </ul>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	300 </td></tr></table>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	301
1781 b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	302 <a name=migrate>
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	303 <h2><b>Move from busybox, uclibc, and gcc/binutils to toybox, musl,
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	304 and llvm (then qcc).</b></h2>
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	305
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	306 <p>Now that we've got a simple development environment working, we can make
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	307 it simpler by moving to better packages. Most of this project's new
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	308 development effort is going into the upstream versions of those packages
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	309 until they're ready for use here. In the meantime we're maintaining what
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	310 works, but only really upgrading the kernel version and slowly switching
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	311 from busybox to toybox one command at a time.)</p>
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	312
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	313 <p><b>uClibc:</b> The uClibc project's <a href=http://lists.uclibc.org/pipermail/uclibc/2007-September/039215.html>chronic development problems</a> resulted in multiple
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	314 year-long gaps between releases, and after the may 2012 release more
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	315 than three years went by without a release during which time
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	316 <a href=http://musl-libc.org>musl-libc</a> went
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	317 from "git init" to a 1.0 release. At this point it doesn't matter
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	318 if uClibc did get another release out, <a href=http://lists.uclibc.org/pipermail/uclibc/2015-May/048989.html>it's over</a>, musl is the more interesting
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	319 project. (Its limitations are lack of target support, but it's easy to
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	320 port musl to new targets and very hard to clean up the mess uClibc has
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	321 become.)</p>
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	322
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	323 <p><b>toybox:</b> The maintainer of Aboriginal Linux <a href=history.html>used to maintain</a>
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	324 busybox, but <a href=http://lwn.net/Articles/202106/>left that project</a>
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	325 and went on to create <a href=http://landley.net/toybox>toybox</a> for
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	326 reasons explained at length elsewhere
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	327 (<a href=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGmtP5Lg_t0>video</a>, <a href=http://landley.net/talks/celf-2013.txt>outline</a>,
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	328 <a href=https://lwn.net/Articles/629362/>merged into Android</a>).</p>
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	329
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	330 <p>The toybox 1.0 release should include a shell capable of replacing
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	331 bash, and may include a make implementation (or in qcc, below). This
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	332 would eliminate two more packages currently used by Aboriginal Linux.</p>
1597 15b4fc37d5f7 Minor tweaks to about page. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1580 diff changeset	333
1781 b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	334 <p><b>llvm:</b> When gcc and binutils went GPLv3, Aboriginal Linux froze
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	335 on the last GPLv2 releases, essentially maintaining its own fork of
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	336 those projects. Several other projects <a href=http://lastgplv2.org>did
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	337 the same</a> but most of those have since
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	338 <a href=http://llvm.linuxfoundation.org>switched to llvm</a>.</p>
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	339
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	340 <p>Unfortunately, configuring and building llvm is
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	341 <a href=http://ellcc.org/blog/?p=13246>unnecessarily hard</a> (among
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	342 other things because it's not just implemented in C++ but the 2013
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	343 C++ spec, so you need gcc 4.7 or newer to bootstrap it), and nobody seems
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	344 to have worked out how to canadian cross native compilers out of it yet.
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	345 But other alternatives like <a href=http://pcc.ludd.ltu.se/>pcc</a>
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	346 or <a href=http://tinycc.org>tinycc</a> are both less capable and less
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	347 actively developed; since the FSF fell on its sword with GPLv3,
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	348 the new emerging standard is LLVM.</p>
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	349
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	350 <p><b>qcc:</b> In the long run, we'd like to put together a new compiler,
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	351 <a href=http://landley.net/qcc>qcc</a>,
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	352 but won't have development effort to spare for it before toybox's 1.0
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	353 release. Its goal is to combine tinycc and QEMU's Tiny Code Generator into
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	354 a single multicall binary toolchain (cc, ld, as, strip and so on in a single
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	355 executable replacing both the gcc and binutils packages) that supports all
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	356 the output formats QEMU can emulate. (As a single-pass compiler with
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	357 no intermediate format it wouldn't optimize well, but could bootstrap
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	358 a native compiler that would.)</p>
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	359
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	360 <p>Additional goals for qcc would be to absorb ccwrap.c, grow built-in
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	361 distcc equivalent functionality, and an updated rewrite of cfront to
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	362 compile C++ code (and thus natively bootstrap LLVM).
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	363
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	364 <p>Finishing the full development slate would bring the total number of
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	365 Aboriginal Linux packages down to four: linux, toybox, musl, and qcc.</p>
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	366
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	367 <p>(Yes, reducing dependency on GPL software and avoiding GPLv3 entirely
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	368 is a common theme of the above package switches, there's a reason for
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	369 that: <a href=https://archive.org/download/OhioLinuxfest2013/24-Rob_Landley-The_Rise_and_Fall_of_Copyleft.mp3>audio</a>,
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	370 <a href=http://landley.net/talks/ohio-2013.txt>outline</a>, see also
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	371 <a href=#selfhost>Android self-hosting</a> below.)</p>
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	372
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	373 <a name=hairball>
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	374 <h2><b>Untangle distro build system hairballs into distinct layers.</b></h2>
1580 455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	375
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	376 <p>The goal here is to separate what packages you can build from where and how
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	377 you can build them.</p>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	378
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	379 <p>For years, Red Hat only built under Red Hat, Debian only built under Debian,
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	380 even Gentoo assumed it was building under Gentoo. Building their packages
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	381 required using their root filesystem, and the only way to get their root
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	382 filesystem was by installing their package binaries built under their root
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	383 filesystem. The circular nature of this process meant that porting an existing
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	384 distribution to a new architecture, or making it use a new C library,
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	385 was extremely difficult at best.</p>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	386
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	387 <p>This led cross compilng build systems to add their own package builds
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	388 ("the buildroot trap"), and wind up maintaining their own repository of
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	389 package build recipes, configurations, and dependencies. Their few hundred
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	390 packages never approached the tens of thousands in full distribution
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	391 repositories, but the effort of maintaining and upgrading packages would
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	392 come to dominate the project's development effort until developers left to
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	393 form new projects and start the cycle over again.</p>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	394
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	395 <p>This massive and perpetual reinventing of wheels is wasteful. The
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	396 proliferation of build systems (buildroot, openembedded, yocto/meego/tizen,
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	397 and many more) each has its own set of supported boards and its own half-assed
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	398 package repository, with no ability to mix and match.</p>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	399
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	400 <p>The proper way to deal with this is to separate the layers so you can mix
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	401 and match. Choice of toolchain (and C library), "board support" (kernel
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	402 configuration, device tree, module selection), and package repository (which
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	403 existing distro you want to use), all must become independent. Until these are
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	404 properly separated, your choice of cross compiler limits
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	405 what boards you can boot the result on (even if the binaries you're building
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	406 would run in a chroot on that hardware), and either of those choices limit
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	407 what packages you can install into the resulting system.</p>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	408
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	409 <p>This means Aboriginal Linux needs to be able to build _just_ toolchains
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	410 and provide them to other projects (done), and to accept external toolchains
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	411 (implemented but not well tested; most other projects produce cross compilers
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	412 but not native compilers).</p>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	413
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	414 <p>It also needs build control images to automatically bootstrap a Debian,
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	415 Fedora, or Gentoo chroot starting from the minimal development enviornment
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	416 Aboriginal Linux creates (possibly through an intermediate Linux From Scratch
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	417 build, followed by fixups to make debian/fedora/gentoo happy with the chroot).
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	418 It must be able to do this on an arbitrary host, using the existing toolchain
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	419 and C library in an architecture-agnostic way. (If the existing system is
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	420 a musl libc built for a microblaze processor, the new chroot should be too.)</p>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	421
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	422 <p>None of these distributions make it easy: it's not documented, and it
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	423 breaks. Some distributions didn't think things through: Gentoo hardwires the
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	424 list of supported architectures into every package in the repository, for
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	425 no apparent reason. Adding a new architecture requires touching every package's
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	426 metadata. Others are outright lazy; building the an allnoconfig Red
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	427 Hat Enterprise 6.2 kernel under SLES11p2 is kind of hilariously bad: "make
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	428 clean" spits out an error because the code it added to detect compiler
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	429 version (something upstream doesn't need) gets confused by "gcc 4.3", which
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	430 has no .0 on the end so the patchlevel variable is blank. Even under Red Hat's
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	431 own filesystem, "make allnoconfig" breaks on the first C file, and requires
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	432 almost two dozen config symbols to be switched on to finish the compilation,
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	433 becuase they never tested anything but the config they ship. Making
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	434 something like that work on a Hexagon processor, or making their
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	435 root filesystem work with a vanilla kernel, is a daunting task.</p>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	436
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	437 <a name=selfhost>
1597 15b4fc37d5f7 Minor tweaks to about page. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1580 diff changeset	438 <h2><b>Make Android self-hosting (musl, toybox, qcc).</b></h2>
1580 455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	439
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	440 <p>Smartphones are replacing the PC, and if Android doesn't become self-hosting
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	441 we may be stuck with locked down iPhone derivatives in the next generation.</p>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	442
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	443 <blockquote>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	444 <b>Mainframe -&gt minicomputer -&gt microcomputer (PC) -&gt smartphone</b>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	445 </blockquote>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	446
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	447 <p>Mainframes were replaced by minicomputers, which were replaced by
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	448 microcomputers, which are being replaced by smartphones. (Nobody needed to
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	449 stand in line to pick up a printout when they could sign up for a timeslot at a
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	450 terminal down the hall. Nobody needed the terminal down the hall when they
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	451 had a computer on their desk. Now nobody needs the computer on their desk when
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	452 they have one in their pocket.)</p>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	453
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	454 <p>Each time the previous generation got kicked up into the "server space",
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	455 only accessed through the newer machines. (This time around kicking the PC
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	456 up into the server space is called "the cloud".)</p>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	457
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	458 <p>Smartphones have USB ports, which charge the phone and transfer data.
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	459 Using a smartphone as a development workstation involves plugging it into a
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	460 USB hub, adding a USB keyboard, USB mouse, and USB to HDMI converter to plug
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	461 it into a television. The rest is software.</p>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	462
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	463 <p>The smartphone needs to "grow up and become a real computer" the
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	464 same way the PC did. The PC originally booted into "ROM Basic" just like
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	465 today's Android boots into Dalvik Java: as the platform matures it must
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	466 outgrow this to run native code written in all sorts of languages.
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	467 PC software was once cross compiled from minicomputers, but as it matured
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	468 it grew to host its own development tools, powerful enough to rebuild the
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	469 entire operating system.</p>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	470
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	471 <p>To grow up, Android phones need to become usable as development
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	472 workstations, meaning the OS needs a self-hosting native development
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	473 environment. This has four parts:</p>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	474
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	475 <ul>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	476 <li>Kernel (we're good)</li>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	477 <li>C library (bionic->musl, not uclibc)</li>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	478 <li>Posix command line (toolbox->toybox, not busybox)</li>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	479 <li>Compiler (qcc, llvm, open64, pcc...)</li>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	480 </ul>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	481
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	482 <p>The Android kernel is a Linux derivative that adds features without removing
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	483 any, so it's already good enough for now. Convergence to vanilla linux is
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	484 important for long-term sustainability, but not time critical. (It's not part
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	485 of "beating iPhone".)</p>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	486
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	487 <p>Android's "no GPL in userspace" policy precludes it from shipping
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	488 many existing Linux packages as part of the base install: no BusyBox or
1626 6f74d6a209da Typo spotted by Tadeusz Tomala. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1618 diff changeset	489 GNU tools, no glibc or uClibc, and no gcc or binutils. All those are all
1580 455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	490 excluded from the Android base install, meaning they will never
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	491 come bundled with the base operating system or preinstalled on devices,
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	492 so we must find alternatives.</p>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	493
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	494 <p>Android's libc is called "bionic", and is a minimal stub sufficient
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	495 to run Dalvik, and not much more. Its command line is called "toolbox" and
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	496 is also a minimal stub providing little functionality. Part of this is
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	497 intentional: Google is shipping a billion broadband-connected unix machines,
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	498 none of which are administered by a competent sysadmin. So for security
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	499 reasons, Android is locked down with minimal functionality outside the Java
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	500 VM sandbox, providing less of an attack surface for viruses and trojans.
1781 b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	501 In theory the <a href=http://linuxcontainers.org>Linux Containers</a>
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	502 infrastructure may eventually provide a solution for sandboxing applications,
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	503 but the base OS needs to be pretty bulletproof if a billion people are going
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	504 to run code they don't deeply understand connected to broadband internet
b27851ab2795 Vo Minh Thu was surprised by toybox replacing busybox and requested I update about.html. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1700 diff changeset	505 24/7.</p>
1580 455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	506
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	507 <p>Thus replacement packages for the C library and posix command line
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	508 should be clean simple code easy to audit for security concerns. But it
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	509 must also provide functionality that bionic and toolbox do not
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	510 attempt, and do not provide a good base for. The musl libc and toybox
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	511 command line package should be able to satisfy these requirements.</p>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	512
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	513 <p>The toolchain is a harder problem. The leading contender (LLVM) is sponsored
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	514 by Apple for use in Mac OSX and the iPhone's iOS. The iPhone is ahead of
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	515 Android here, and although Android can use this it has other problems
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	516 (implemented in C++ so significantly more complicated from a system
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	517 dependency standpoint, making it difficult to bootstrap and impossible
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	518 to audit).</p>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	519
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	520 <p>The simplest option would be to combine the TinyCC project with QEMU's
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	521 Tiny Code Generator (TCG). The licensing of the current TinyCC is incompatible
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	522 with Android's userspace but permission has been obtained from Fabrice
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	523 Bellard to BSD-license his original TinyCC code as used in Rob's TinyCC fork.
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	524 This could be used to implement a "<a href=http://landley.net/qcc>qcc</a>"
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	525 capable of producing code for
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	526 every platform qemu supports. The result would be simple and auditable,
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	527 and compatably licensed with android userspace. Unfortunately, such a project
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	528 is understaffed, and wouldn't get properly started until after the 1.0
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	529 release of Toybox.</p>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	530
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	531 <p>Other potential compiler projects include Open64 and PCC. Neither of these
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	532 has built a bootable the Linux kernel, without which a self-bootstrapping
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	533 system is impossible. (This is a good smoketest for a mature compiler: if it
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	534 can't build the kernel, it probably can't build userspace packages of the
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	535 complexity people actually write.)</p>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	536
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	537 <b>Why does this matter?</b>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	538
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	539 <p>This is time critical due to network effects, which create positive
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	540 feedback loops benefiting the most successful entrant and creating natural
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	541 "standards" (which become self-defending monopolies if owned by a single
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	542 player.) Whichever platform has the most users attracts the most
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	543 development effort, because it has the most potential customers. The platform
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	544 all the software ships on first (often only) is the one everybody wants to
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	545 have. Other benefits to being biggest include the large start-up costs and
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	546 much lower incremental costs of electronics manufacturing: higher unit
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	547 volume makes devices cheaper to produce. Amortizing research and development
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	548 budgets over a larger user base means the technology may actually advance
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	549 faster (more effort, anyway)...</p>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	550
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	551 <p>Technological transitions produce "S curves", where a gradual increase
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	552 gives way to exponential increase (the line can go nearly vertical on a graph)
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	553 and then eventually flattens out again producing a sort of S shape.
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	554 During the steep part of the S-curve acquiring new customers dominates.
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	555 Back in the early minicomputer days a lot more people had no computer than had
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	556 an Atari 800 or Commodore 64 or Apple II or IBM PC, so each vendor focused
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	557 on selling to the computerless than converting customers from other
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	558 vendors. Once the pool of "people who haven't got the kind of computer
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	559 we're selling today but would like one if they did" was exhausted (even if
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	560 only temporarily, waiting for computers to get more powerful and easier
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	561 to use), the largest players starved the smaller ones of new sales, until
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	562 only the PC and Macintosh were left. (And the Macintosh switched over to
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	563 PC hardware components to survive, offering different software and more
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	564 attractive packaging of the same basic components.)</p>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	565
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	566 <p>The same smartphone transition is inevitable as the pool of "people with
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	567 no smartphone, but who would like one if they had it" runs out. At that point,
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	568 the largest platform will suck users away from smaller platforms. If the
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	569 winner is android we can open up the hardware and software. If the winner
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	570 is iPhone, we're stuck with decades of microsoft-like monopoly except
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	571 this time the vendor isn't hamstrung by their own technical incompetence.</p>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	572
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	573 <p>The PC lasted over 30 years from its 1981 introduction until smartphones
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	574 seriously started displacing it. Smartphones themselves will probably last
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	575 about as long. Once the new standard "clicks", we're stuck with it for
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	576 a long time. Now is when we can influence this decision. Linux's
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	577 15 consecutive "year of the linux desktop" announcements (spanning the period
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	578 of Microsoft Bob, Windows Millennium, and windows Vista) show how hard
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	579 displacing an entrenched standard held in place by network effects actually
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	580 is.</p>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	581
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	582 <b>Why not extend vanilla Linux to smartphones instead?</b>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	583
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	584 <p>Several reasons.</p>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	585
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	586 <ul>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	587 <li><p>It's probably too late for another entrant. Microsoft muscling in with
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	588 Lumia is like IBM muscling in with OS/2. And Ubuntu on the phone is like
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	589 Coherent Unix on the PC, unlikely to even register. We have two clear leaders
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	590 and the rest are noise ("Coke, Pepsi, and everybody else"). Possibly they
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	591 could still gain ground by being categorically better, but "Categorically
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	592 better than the newest iPhone/iPad" is a hard bar to clear.</p></li>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	593
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	594 <li><p>During the minicomputer-&gtPC switch, various big iron vendors tried to
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	595 shoehorn their products down into the minicomputer space. The results were
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	596 laughable. (Look up the "microvax" sometime.)</p>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	597
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	598 <p>The successful tablets are big phones, not small PCs. Teaching a PC to be
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	599 a good phone is actually harder than teaching a phone to be a good PC, we
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	600 understand the old problem space much better. (It's not that it's less
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	601 demanding, but the ways in which it is demanding are old hat and long
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	602 solved. Being a good phone is still tricky.)</p>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	603 </li>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	604
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	605 <li><p>Deployment requires vendor partnerships which are difficult and slow.
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	606 Apple exclusively partnered with AT&T for years to build market share, and
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	607 had much less competition at the time. Google eventually wound up buying
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	608 Motorola to defend itself from the dysfunctional patent environment.
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	609 Microsoft hijacked Nokia by installing one of their own people as CEO, and
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	610 it's done them about as much good as a similiar CEO-installation at SGI did
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	611 to get Microsoft into the supercomputer market. (Taking out SGI did reduce
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	612 Microsoft's competition in graphics workstations, but that was a market they
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	613 already had traction in.)</p>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	614
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	615 <li>Finally, Linux has had almost 2 decades of annual "Linux on the Desktop"
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	616 pushes that universally failed, and there's a reason for this. Open source
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	617 development can't do good user interfaces for the same reason wikipedia can't
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	618 write a novel with a coherent plot. The limitations of the development model
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	619 do not allow for this. The old adage "too many cooks spoil the soup" is not
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	620 a warning about lack of nutrition, it's a warning that aesthetic issues do
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	621 not survive committees. Peer review does not produce blockbuster movies,
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	622 hit songs, or masterpiece paintings. It finds scientific facts, not beauty.</p>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	623
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	624 <p>Any time "shut up and show me the code" is not the correct response to
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	625 the problem at hand, open source development melts down into one of three
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	626 distinct failure modes:</p>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	627
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	628 <p>1) Endless discussion that never results in actual code, because
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	629 nobody can agree on a single course of action.</p>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	630
1597 15b4fc37d5f7 Minor tweaks to about page. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1580 diff changeset	631 <p>2) The project forks itself to death: everybody goes off and codes up their
1580 455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	632 preferred solution, but it's no easier to agree on a single approach after
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	633 the code exists so the forks never get merged.</p>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	634
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	635 <p>3) Delegating the problem to nobody, either by A) separating engine from
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	636 interface and focusing on the engine in hopes that some glorious day somebody
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	637 will write an interface worth using, or B) making the interface so configurable
1597 15b4fc37d5f7 Minor tweaks to about page. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1580 diff changeset	638 that the fact it takes hours to figure out what your options are and still has
15b4fc37d5f7 Minor tweaks to about page. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1580 diff changeset	639 no sane defaults is now somehow the end user's fault.</p>
1580 455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	640
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	641 <p>Open source development defeats Brooks' Law by leveraging empirical tests.
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	642 Integrating the results of decoupled development efforts is made possible
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	643 by the ability to unequivocally determine which approaches are best (trusted
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	644 engineers break ties, but it has to be pretty close and the arguments go back
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	645 and forth). Even changing the design and repeatedly ripping out existing
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	646 implementations is doable if everyone can at least retroactively agree that what
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	647 we have now is better that what we used to have, and we should stop fighting
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	648 to go back to the old way.</p>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	649
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	650 <p>In the absence of empirical tests, this doesn't work. By their nature,
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	651 aesthetic issues do not have emprical tests for "better" or "worse".
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	652 Chinese food is not "better" than mexican food. But if you can't
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	653 decide what you're doing (if one chef insists on adding ketchup and another
1597 15b4fc37d5f7 Minor tweaks to about page. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1580 diff changeset	654 bacon and a third ice cream) the end result is an incoherent mess. (At
15b4fc37d5f7 Minor tweaks to about page. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1580 diff changeset	655 best you get beige and the DMV. Navigable with enough effort, but not
15b4fc37d5f7 Minor tweaks to about page. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1580 diff changeset	656 appealing.)</p>
1580 455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	657
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	658 <p>The way around this is to a have a single author with a clear vision
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	659 in charge of the user interface, who can make aesthetic decisions that are
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	660 coherent rather than "correct". Unfortunately when this does happen, the
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	661 open source community pressures the developer of a successful project to
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	662 give over control of the project to a committee. So the Gecko engine was
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	663 buried in the unusable Mozilla browser, then Galleon forked off from that
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	664 and Mozilla rebased itself on the Galleon fork. Then Firefox forked off
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	665 of that and the Mozilla foundation took over Firefox...</p>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	666
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	667 <p>Part of the success of Android is that its user experience is NOT
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	668 community developed. (This isn't just desktop, this is "if the whole thing
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	669 pauses for two seconds while somebody's typing in a phone number, that's
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	670 unacceptable". All the way down to the bare metal, the OS serves the task
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	671 of being a handheld interactive touch screen device running off of battery
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	672 power first, being anything else it _could_ be doing second.)</p>
455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	673 </li>
1618 ff283fe54626 Web page tweaks: put "start here" in header, slightly reword menu entries, use style sheet hackery to make blank lines after lists go away, and remove spanish translation about the about page that went 404. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1597 diff changeset	674 </ul>
ff283fe54626 Web page tweaks: put "start here" in header, slightly reword menu entries, use style sheet hackery to make blank lines after lists go away, and remove spanish translation about the about page that went 404. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1597 diff changeset	675
ff283fe54626 Web page tweaks: put "start here" in header, slightly reword menu entries, use style sheet hackery to make blank lines after lists go away, and remove spanish translation about the about page that went 404. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1597 diff changeset	676 <hr>
1580 455f8dec31a0 Large rewrite of about page, probably still needs cleanup. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 1341 diff changeset	677
881 0da87d1ef528 Update the web page. Put the left-side nav bar back, move about page to "about.html" and make news.html the default index. Add architectures page. Note that IRC discussion is now on #edev. Rob Landley <rob@landley.net> parents: 879 diff changeset	678 <!--#include file="footer.html" -->

Mercurial > hg > aboriginal

annotate www/about.html @ 1826:1ba206595781 draft