On kernel mailing list behavior

He was justifying being rude, pure and simple. The comments on the code are merely thin decoration of a personal attack. This: "it only got to the point of really unpleasant conversations about your taste after your directly expressed opinion that taste was optional". Count the fallacies. Then note your selective interpretation.

Also: "did not start toxic", which clearly implies that the discourse did turn toxic. To tell the truth, I don't remember anything about it, except for not feeling in any way compelled to "work for the kernel" when not being paid to do so, after I had already made a major contribution. In the event, I think Ted went in and made some cosmetic changes to it. Good. He was getting paid to do that, I wasn't. See, everything was working fine except for one thing: the toxic behaviour on the sidelines.

Also, how do you know HTree code is actually crappy? Because Al said so? Did you read it? Did you see the part where I think Al's code is ugly? I mean it. Cosmetic beauty is in the eye of the beholder. And honestly, beauty is secondary to the code being good.

And the code is good in spite of Al smearing it (and by implication smearing me). It is in fact the fastest directory indexing code in the known universe, with something like one bug turning up over the last ten years, that being a year or so after going into service. For the record, I did "come out of retirement" and help fix that. It mattered, you see.

Anyway, I told Al it wasn't him and I meant it. I never expected him to act visibly defensive about whatever he was thinking of, which I have long since forgotten.

But here we have another point: certain people feel justified in attacking contributors who are strictly volunteers. My lord. Where on earth does that come from? In the Tux3 project I have gotten some great contributions from really talented people, and of course I want more. I don't browbeat them to get more. See? Basic principle of decency.

Now here you are, jumping on the side of toxic entitlement. Try this: say thank you for that crucial piece of the Linux tapestry I provided. And think hard about whether the kernel would have gotten more like that from me and others if the culture was a little less toxic.