Whacking Droids: How to Extract Requirements from Flame Wars
Channel: Linux.conf.au 2011 -- Brisbane, Australia
Date: 23/11/2014

Presenter(s): Paul McKenney
URL: http://2011.linux.conf.au/programme/schedule/view_talk/161

You might have noticed that the Linux-kernel mailing list has somewhat of a reputation for flame wars.  You might also have noticed that there is no shortage of people who look down on the Linux community as a whole because of such flame wars.  But the (perhaps surprising) fact is that there is often valuable information lurking in the flames in the form of requirements and constraints, and this information is all too often lost.

This presentation will therefore describe how to (more or less) safely extract valuable information from a flame war.  Examples will be drawn from the author's experience in the "whack-a-droid" Android suspend-blockers flame wars.  Of course, one of the most important things is to set aside your own desire to flame -- after all, if you don't care deeply about the topic, why on earth would you bother wading into flamage?  Armed with this and with other tricks and techniques, you will be able to extract information from flame wars, while suffering only minor burns!

Of course, extracting requirements is no guarantee that the corresponding code will be accepted upstream.  Nevertheless, a clear statement of the requirements will usually help move the discussion forward.

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