To: perot@pallas.amp.uni-hannover.de
Subject: Re: The STiK war                                                                


On Mon, 27 Jan 1997 16:49:20 Peter Rottengatter <perot wrote: 
>
>I can't stand it any longer. Yesterday I had 73 messages from two days, 
>about 60 dealing with the quarrel in the group. Today more. It's starting 
>to affect my health. I should be busy writing up my PhD thesis, but I 
>decided that it's alright to devote a part of the time to getting a 
>significantly improved STiK done. What I earn is insults and accusations, 
>and having to spend my time writing responses with apologies. This is not 
>what I gonna use my time for, if my thesis should have priority anyway.
>So I decided to step back for a while, dropping active membership. I 
>figure if they can afford to waste a month with this war, then it should 
>be alright to allow for another month to let people calm down. I'll 
>announce that to the group tomorrow. I think you should know before.

I quite understand how you feel about it, though I am glad to note that you
have not yet taken that step.  The general tone of discussions in the list
really has improved a lot over the last couple of days, and I think we are
back to normalcy except for an occasional reference to the recent past.
I hope that this trend continues, and that you may then reconsider your
decision to leave the list even temporarily.


>I owe you something, as you've been the only one who always was fair 
>and considerate, and constructive. I'd like to keep contact with you, 
>if you agree.

Yes, of course.


>I'll continue to write on my system, if you wish you can  participate.

I am still interested in helping with optimization etc, though I realize that
the ultimate usefulness of a new system is limited without improved clients.
I still hope that in the end STiK 2 will be the 'official' version, even if
you do find it necessary to temporarily leave the list at this time.


>I'm not at all after having only my name in the credits. 

I never did believe so.
It wouldn't make sense in a project of this kind anyway.


>More important is for me that progress is made, and the new system gets 
>functional in a reasonable time. Half a year has been wasted in this 
>respect IMHO, as 8 months ago I got Dan's invitation to the group, with 
>which he announced that he'd revamp STiK to something to which the new 
>system is much more similar than nowaday's STiK 1.x.

True, although not all of that time has been wasted I think.  Some of the facts
brought up by discussions during this time have led to a deeper understanding
of some requirements and possible pitfalls in implementing a more advanced STiK.
But I agree that the time had come to act, or the new ideas and understanding
would have been completely wasted.  At some point new ideas must be implemented
instead of just being discussed, or we could make no more progress at all.


>I got IP and SLIP done, and I certainly won't fail with TCP or PPP.

I'm sure you can fix them too, but it would be better for it to be done as a
cooperative effort with Dan and the others.  For full usefulness what we know
as 'STiK 2' must be the official version, not just an alternative one. I will
not give up the hope of this until all doors are closed.


>People were happier as long as they only had the old STiK. Maybe 
>reinvoking this situation for four to five weeks makes them a little 
>more considerate. If so, then in five weeks I'll be happy to rejoin the 
>group again.

'Better late than never' as we say in Sweden, but I still would prefer it if
you could avoid leaving at all.  In the last two days there was a lot of mail
(77 mails), but only a minority of these referred in any way to the recent
unrest, and those not using very harsh terms at all.

The decision is yours, but I hope you can stay.


Btw:
  Martin M still has not sent me the explanation of his method for 'crash'
  protection that I asked him for.  I haven't seen any answer at all to that
  mail.  But in one of his posts he did hint at a suggestion for yet a new
  format he was going to suggest in a coming mail, implying that he thought
  we might find that more agreeable.  I wonder what he's up to now.

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Regards:  Ronald Andersson                     mailto:dlanor@oden.se
                                               http://www.oden.se/~dlanor
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