On Thu, 11 Mar 2004, Nigel Metheringham wrote:
> I guess theres a bit of context here that was explained in the precursor
> to the discussion document, but got lost this time. The summary of that
> is that in a few years Philip gets to retirement, which will definitely
> have some effect on his exim work
I did feel that this context was missing from the document, but I didn't
like to say, as it is essentially personal information. While many on
this list know (of) Philip and have met him at courses and suchlike, I
don't think it is clear to the average Exim punter, or even all of those
interested in Exim's development, that Philip isn't actually a young
hacker holed up in his dorm room. I think the truth would probably
surprise many (even given his occasional anecdotal mentions on the users'
list of programming ancient systems in obscure languages :).
I think Philip's maturity and experience has had a huge (positive)
influence on Exim's stability and development, more so than one commonly
comes across in many similar projects. When people propose alterations or
features, I'm always amazed, the insight into the implications of such
changes that Philip exhibits. While some of those insights are as direct
consequences of knowing the software inside out, others are related to
'real world' and interoperability matters, which certainly don't occur to
me and probably not to the proposer.
I hope that Philip won't disappear from Exim's development too soon. I
also hope that whatever team is assembled around him, and as the migration
wears on, that it inherits a good deal of the wisdom and prudence that
Philip currently offers.
Jethro.
p.s. On another note, I find it refreshing that Philip is perfectly
honest about the limits of his knowledge, and will happily admit that he
doesn't understand or know anything about some protocol or mechanism which
is now related or suggested for Exim! He doesn't pretend to know it all,
unlike some developers, and is quite happy to ask for help and advice from
the community where he feels such input would aid his understanding of an
issue.
