My name is John McDonough and I am a retired computer professional living in Midland, Michigan. I write ocasionally, have an online tutorial on PIC microcontrollers, the occasional amateur radio magazine article, and even a Six Sigma article. I have used Fedora since FC1, although I don't always keep up with every release.
I feel a certain obligation to contribute, but although I program from time to time I can't really see myself being able to commit the time nor intensity needed to develop. However, I believe I have a better than average command of the English language, and when first Paul Frields and then Karsten Wade mentioned the need for beat writers, it seemed to me that this might be a way I could give something back.
Looking at the list of open slots, it seems as if I could add something in the gcc arena or possibly Development Tools. I use gcc regularly, mostly C or C++, but I'm not above writing the occasional line of Fortran or Ada. At this point, though, it isn't entirely clear how a writer learns what is going on for subjects that don't have a PoC. Wade through subversion comments maybe?
Hmmm ... the SelfIntroduction page says you might want to know more about me. Well, although I programmed for many moons, my real interest has been the software process. After retiring I did a little consulting on Six Sigma as applied to software development at some very large firms on three continents. Prior to retiring my role was to provide the technical guidance on large (>1MM USD) software projects. I was (thankfully) insulated from many of the administrative burdens, although I did play a major role in our software process.
On the personal side, I am an amateur radio operator, in fact, Radio Officer for the state of Michigan, which means I spend a lot of time with the state police. I like grody technical stuff, build radios, play with microcontrollers, all that geeky stuff. Still, if one looks at my history, both at work and at play, the people skills are not entirely absent.
With David Nalley's help I got signed up to FAS, did the CLA thing, now it looks like I have a heck of a lot to read!
--McD
On Thu, 2008-08-07 at 15:32 -0400, John J. McDonough wrote:
My name is John McDonough and I am a retired computer professional living in Midland, Michigan. I write ocasionally, have an online tutorial on PIC microcontrollers, the occasional amateur radio magazine article, and even a Six Sigma article. I have used Fedora since FC1, although I don't always keep up with every release.
I feel a certain obligation to contribute, but although I program from time to time I can't really see myself being able to commit the time nor intensity needed to develop. However, I believe I have a better than average command of the English language, and when first Paul Frields and then Karsten Wade mentioned the need for beat writers, it seemed to me that this might be a way I could give something back.
Great, John, thanks. Your interest and expertise is most welcome.
Looking at the list of open slots, it seems as if I could add something in the gcc arena or possibly Development Tools. I use gcc regularly, mostly C or C++, but I'm not above writing the occasional line of Fortran or Ada. At this point, though, it isn't entirely clear how a writer learns what is going on for subjects that don't have a PoC. Wade through subversion comments maybe?
Not that bad. Try these:
* Put your name next to the beat on the wiki. * Subscribe to fedora-devel-list and scan recent archives for gcc related content. * Same for reading the Fedora planet (http://planet.fedoraproject.org) * Feel free to drop an email to that list and let them know you are covering this for the release notes. * Look in https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features for information on planned and proposed features for Fedora 10 that impact gcc et al. * New work and interest seems to be happening in gdb, as some folks appear to have given up on Frysk; changes here would be news for Fedora 10 most likely; look at Tom Tromey's blog posts to see what he is doing there: http://tromey.com/blog/
One thing that is fortunate -- Uli Drepper is one of the most consistent developers when it comes to sending us release notes content related to gcc. That would point you in more research directions.
Hmmm ... the SelfIntroduction page says you might want to know more about me. Well, although I programmed for many moons, my real interest has been the software process. After retiring I did a little consulting on Six Sigma as applied to software development at some very large firms on three continents. Prior to retiring my role was to provide the technical guidance on large (>1MM USD) software projects. I was (thankfully) insulated from many of the administrative burdens, although I did play a major role in our software process.
Do you think of the open source methodology as a new/different approach?
Just curious, rather off-topic but an interest of mine. :)
On the personal side, I am an amateur radio operator, in fact, Radio Officer for the state of Michigan, which means I spend a lot of time with the state police. I like grody technical stuff, build radios, play with microcontrollers, all that geeky stuff. Still, if one looks at my history, both at work and at play, the people skills are not entirely absent.
+1 to hams, open source seems to attract our fair share.
With David Nalley's help I got signed up to FAS, did the CLA thing, now it looks like I have a heck of a lot to read!
Either ask questions here or come visit us on IRC to work through anything that comes up.
- Karsten
----- Original Message ----- From: "Karsten 'quaid' Wade" kwade@redhat.com To: fedora-docs-list@redhat.com Sent: Wednesday, August 27, 2008 6:04 PM Subject: Re: Introduction - John McDonough
Do you think of the open source methodology as a new/different approach?
Just curious, rather off-topic but an interest of mine. :)
Actualy, I've noodled that some, and wondered how/where to poke my nose in to study it further.
Much like CMM, Six Sigma techniques as applied to software development can be somewhat liberating for developers, and can make them far more effective, but there is a hump to get over that, like CMM, requires strong management commitment. I don't see how that could be done in a FOSS environment, but I also haven't looked too hard (yet). Six Sigma in particular is also all about metrics, and developers and metrics mix about as well as oil and water. Still, few people seem to respond as well to improvements in productivity as developers, especially when they can see it in those numbers they abohr. (Go figure).
I do see fertile fields in some of the peripheral areas of the process, though. The whole feature vetting process, for example, seems like an obvious candidate. Communications also has to be a prominent target. But I need to personally get much more of the process internalized before I can take out my stick and poke around a bit <g>
--McD