Re: [avr-gcc-list] Focus of this list

[Jason Kyle]

A response from the avr-gcc-list admin:

At 17:05 16/08/2002 -0700, Mike Tsao wrote:
> Everyone,
>
> This is a great list with many valuable contributors, and I don't believe
> anyone has abused it since I subscribed about six months ago. The
> signal-to-noise ratio is very high, which is rare and commendable for any
> list.

You are quite correct and everyone here should give themselves a pat on the 
back for being such a worthy group.


> But I am sure I'm not the only one to notice that we get many questions
> having to do with the C language itself, or GCC in general, rather than this
> list's topic (which I believe to be stated on the avr1.org website as being
> "for anyone and everyone who is interested in building projects using the
> Atmel AVR microcontroller"). It's fair to interpret this phrase as limiting
> discussion to Atmel- or AVR-specific development questions, rather than
> allowing any general question encountered while developing for AVR.

Ok, list admin is at fault a little here as when I moved this list from my 
own server to an ISP running majordomo instead of GNU Mailman I now realise 
I never included the list topic text.  What you are interpreting as the 
list topic is actually avr1.org's purpose statement, not specifically any 
particular content or service.

This is the avr-gcc-list topic text as per January 2001:

***************************************************************************
The avr-gcc list is intended as a forum for discussion about the following:
Bugs
Programming technique
Installation and distributions
Hints and tips
Other avr-gcc related stuff

General rules are:
Be kind, respect others
No Attachments
No html in email

Cheers,
Jason Kyle
***************************************************************************


> I really don't want to single out anyone who asked such questions recently,
> and I apologize in advance to the unlucky few who do feel singled out. This
> has happened on avr-gcc as long as I can remember, so singling out would be
> unfair and meaningless. Moreover, the lines are gray -- most people first
> encounter the "volatile" keyword when dealing with interrupts or
> multithreaded code, and they also first encounter interrupts during embedded
> development, so it's hard to blame someone for thinking their AVR uC or
> compiler is broken because their variable won't change.

Of course some of these questions seem so obvious you may feel they can be 
answered by other means, but i'm sure those that ask have done their 
homework and are genuinely stuck.  To date not one complaint regarding such 
questions has been received by the list admin (me).


> Rather than starting a flame war, may I suggest a productive way of dealing
> with the problem? Will the members of the list please name similar web
> resources where it's appropriate to ask general C and GCC questions? We
> recently danced around this issue when discussing the scope of the proposed
> AVR-GCC FAQ, but I don't recall a definite resolution. If we compiled a list
> of the URLs or subscription e-mail addresses of C/GCC lists and resources,
> and in the future the self-appointed regulars politely steered general
> questions toward them, that could be a reasonable way to deal with the
> problem.

http://www.avrfreaks.net is a good place for general questions about AVR 
tools and projects in general.

I do not believe there is a problem, anyone who has an opinion on this 
matter is invited to email me privately so I may gauge the general feeling.

Yes an avr-gcc FAQ would be a good thing. Snippets here and there already 
exist, as does an archive of this list, but someone needs to take ownership 
of such a project in order to achieve something useful.


> (If anyone thinks I'm out of line, has a different proposal, or disagrees
> that this is a problem at all, please let me know. Again, my intent is not
> to flame or to call out specific questions; it's just a general request to
> narrow the scope of discussion to the stated purpose of the list.)

The thought of creating a general avr discussion list has crossed my mind a 
few times lately, many find the forum style of discussion group less 
convenient than a mailing list and hence don't get much out of other 
existing sites.

Thank you for voicing your opinions, they are welcome.  I will send a 
follow up post if I receive any email on the topic.

Best Regards,

Jason Kyle
avr-gcc-list admin



> --
> Mike Tsao
> http://www.sowbug.com/tqw/

avr-gcc-list at http://avr1.org