[coreboot] [RFC] Proposal for policy for changing the development guidelines

[Patrick Georgi]

2016-01-30 15:26 GMT+01:00 Paul Menzel <paulepanter at users.sourceforge.net>:
> But then, I wondered why I was not aware of that section in the
> development guidelines [2], and wanted to read up on it. While at it, I
> also looked through the history, and there I see, that it was only
> added [3] on the same day.
We had mentions of intel assembler syntax on the list over the decades
(all 1.5 of them, proposed starting point for web based searches:
site:www.coreboot.org/pipermail/coreboot/ -gerrit intel syntax), and
it was always clear that coreboot uses AT&T syntax for x86.
The collective consciousness (with apologies to Durkheim) was pretty
consistent here.

The reason why this was added now is that people insisted that as long
as there's no written down hard rule about it, everything is fair
game.
Personally, I'm not a huge fan of this model, but after the power
games surrounding this topic already took forever (may include traces
of hyperbole), it was the most economic decision to just nail it down.

>    4. If there is objection, and no agreement can be reached, the
>       proposal(s) should go up for a vote. The vote period should be at
>       least one week.
There exists no electorate (or to state it more constructively: who
gets to vote?)

> No idea, but I’d think it’d be only fair to revert the changes made
> this months, and discuss them first.
With all the time already wasted on the assembly syntax issue (and no
chance for a different outcome), and everything else looking like
context-preserving clarifications (eg. GPL -> GPLv2) or harmless
updates (bug tracker) I don't see a need for that.
This also assumes both that your proposal takes effect, and is
effective retroactively.

The main problem here (if any) was the lack of notification after
changing the document. Given the limited impact (there were no other
instances of .intel_syntax out there, and folks generally knew to use
AT&T syntax), it probably wasn't considered a big deal.


Patrick
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