Re: Meeting Agenda 2008-08-06

[Phil Muldoon <pmuldoon at redhat dot com>]

Tom Tromey wrote:
> Not much information came out about when estimates will be ready, and
> I didn't press for this.  Honestly I wonder if this estimation thing
> is worth the effort -- comments?  On the one hand I think it is
> important to know what we are trying to do, and have at least some
> idea for how big these tasks are.  On the other hand, this task seems
> vague and I don't want folks to feel bogged down; also I'd rather
> avoid people having dead time.  So, what works for you

Estimates are good to have, they keep us (well me) honest, and establish 
a base-criteria for measuring progress. That being said, it's a very 
difficult task to create an accurate estimate when one does not have a 
thorough knowledge of the problem. Any estimate before this point will 
be inaccurate. Also an estimate has to be weighted to the person doing 
the work. Expert or Novice with GDB? I assume I will not be doing 
exception work, that I am just performing the investigation phase. I 
have nothing against fixing the eventual bugs - and probably will by 
default - but I don't want to preclude any other people from taking it 
if they feel they are better suited for it, or would work in 
partnership. Anyway I guess until I stop creating gnat's PR to cover the 
exception related bugs, it is just going to be a matter of time to come 
up with a task-based estimate.

And that is an ongoing process. Was hoping to tie the discovery phase up 
by today. But I am investigating a different case where GDB may lose 
control of an inferior in an exception (this time via step). I'll 
investigate and document that, and, well if it does not open-up other 
leads, I can begin to think on solutions to the bugs and test-cases I 
have filed in gnats. These are all bugs, and not features.

Regards

Phil