17 Jul
2012
17 Jul
'12
3:10 p.m.
Hi George,
On Tue, Jul 17, 2012 at 02:04:16PM +0300, George Carpenter wrote:
[...]
Also I see that although I am trying to devote sometime, there are always
some expected problems. These problems are usually solved if you read the
mailing list or ask help from IRC, but in many cases this takes a lot of
effort and after some hours and painkillers, you cannot figure out how to
solve a problem.
Maybe that's a question of tools.
There are no public IRC logs of the #osmocom channel that I know of.
I don't know whether publishing logs would comply with the freenode TOS
and if the project leader would agree with that, it could be discussed
though.
Since the mailing list is mailman driven there are archives which can be
downloaded and tools so you can convert these archives in mbox/maildir
format and therefor search them with e.g. notmuchmail.
Just to mention the latest FULL LRAM compile problem
that
exists since the start of the year. Yesterday I was trying all day to find
a solution, but there were a lot of candidate solutions and patches, but
none was solving the actual problem. This would have saved me a lot of time
if this was mentioned in the wiki and if someone had devoted some time to
print 2 lines of comment or directions on how to solve or explain to many
people that it is not solved.
In my opinion it is quite obvious what to do: update the wiki.
Everybody can get an account.
Because I see that no one from the persons that have
real skills and
knowledge of this project spares some time to update and evolve the
OsmocomBB wiki,
I think the quality of the *.osmocom.org wikis is very high.
I propose to create some “booty”, so we get a proper
wiki
for this project and the person or persons that will create this will be
“rewarded” for their time and effort. I know that knowledge has no price,
but I propose to create a “booty” bank with either money or/and services
or/and equipment. Anything that any individual can contribute.
Where would this
money/services/equipment come from?
I think this will boost the quality of this project
and will be something
interesting for some newbie to get involved.
Again, if you find something out, why
not just add it to the wiki?
Some things that I found that this project needs is a
newbie/getting
started wiki. Detailed and with information and explanation as you were
talking to a 5 year old child. This should include detailed information on
what equipment and first things to do before you even start your first
attempt to load any code to the phone and then how to load the first
firmware and load the first application. I really liked the srlabs
instructions about gprs and gsmmap. It was a good way to start and it was a
step by step manual and easy to understand.
To me there is no compelling reason to
split the existing wiki. If the
documented steps to get started are not verbose enough, this can be
improved. Fragmentation isn't very likely to improve the overall
documentation quality.
A full list of existing applications. This will
include detailed
explanation of each application and it’s capabilities. Also how to load
them, all the application parameters and what you can do with them.
I am not aware
of an 'application' that is not documented in the wiki.
If that's the case, start a new wiki page! A stub is better than
nothing, questions can be asked on IRC...
A hints/tips list. This will be some useful
information about the OsmocomBB
project. What to do and not to do. For example if the loader shows always
the FMTOOL message and what o do in similar situations. To take extra
caution to the physical contact of the cable, etc. Issues that are
encountered and are standard to the project.
You just created some documentation.
All that is left is to add it to
the already existing wiki.
[...]
A todo list. This refers to the masters of this project. That is because
they usually show the direction of the project. They who have deep
knowledge of this project can show where this project is heading for. So a
todo list to get there will be nice. You never know, even a newbie may
solve an issue that is it totally new to the project, just to evolve the
whole project. Right now I do not find any reference or it is very
difficult to know (even the masters of OsmocomBB) where this project is
heading to.
This was discussed before. Not only at osmocom.org, but also at the
LKML
and other places. The consensus was always that people who understand
the codebase also see what is left to do. a TODO list has not much value
without knowledge and the skill level to implement missing features.
A full GSM documentation. This will include detailed
documents and
references on each and every aspect of GSM technology. I am talking for an
encyclopedia of everything that is referred in GSM technology. I think
this is very important to have all the information that is needed all in
one place and updated on any occasion. This is very important for someone
who really want to get involved in the project. This can also include 3G
and future communication technologies. I am talking for the bible of
communications. Of course one step at a time. I know that all the
information that we need is out there on the net, but all the information
gathered in one place and shorted by an expert would be the ultimate tool.
I agree
that this would be useful. There are some places on the internet
like gsmfordummies that try to do that, but there is undoubted room for
improvement.
To do something like that would mean a massive lot of work. Who should
do that?
[...]
Kind regards,
-Alexander Huemer