SLDev-Traffic 18
sldev-traffic no 18
sldev discussions through July 1, 2007
JIRA Pain Redux
JIRA went into molasses mode again this weekend. We're aware of it. As mentioned last week, an upgrade is pending which should help with availability.
On the big plus side, more and more residents are using JIRA. It's helping Linden Lab set priorities, and your extra information on reproducing bugs makes us much more efficient in fixing problems. On the minus side, we're introducing the software to a bigger workout than it's ever encountered. Welcome to our world, JIRA.
Shaders and the Sky
Max Okumoto started looking at LLVOSky, with an eye on reducing its CPU usage. Brad Linden took the opportunity to introduce himself and to talk about Windlight. Brad encouraged Max not to spend too much time looking at this code, as Windlight will replace it with code with different performance considerations.
Brad also encourages listmembers to take a look at the nVidia SDK, which is available on all platforms. Brad says it's a general OpenGL SDK, and useful for simplifying the use of GL extensions.
Intel Compiler
Sardonyx Linden has been experimenting with the Intel compiler for the Linux build of Second Life, with good success. Look for support in the SConstruct soon. Internally, this has already been committed.
Getting Serious About Software
Alan Grimes posted with a concern about focusing on micro optimizations, instead of working on an overall cleanup of the code base. Responses were varied, from agreement to pointing out that open source developers choose work that's interesting to them, not always the work they'd be paid to do selectively.
Argent Stonecutter points out that much of the discussion has been about choosing proper compiler settings, and that not all of the CPU discussion has been geared toward cycle tuning.
Is Linux Leaking?
In a late response to Nicholaz Beresford's statement that the then-current version of Second Life was nearly leak-free, Callum Lerwick wrote to inquire whether Nicholaz had been testing under Linux. Nicholaz uses Windows.
Callum believes he sees some leaks which may be unique to Linux, however Max Okumoto notes that the tcmalloc() libraries are incompatible with Callum's use of Valgrind, and may produce false reports. There wasn't any follow-up confirmation as to whether this was the case.
Lindens, Assemble!
Rob Lanphier (Linden), Soft Linden (hi!) and Liana Linden can now be found at Rob's office on Thursdays at 2pm. This is a single meta office hour replacing Rob's Wednesday and Friday hours, still taking place at Rob's office in Grasmere. You get Rob's steering, Liana's legal guidance, and Soft's visibility into internal development, all in one place. If you've got policy, legal, or strategic questions, this is a great place to raise them.
No Voice Source Yet
Matthew Dowd inquired about whether voice source code was yet available. Rob Lanphier (Linden) noted that there are still some complexities in decoupling code under third-party license. Rob is chasing down more details.
Finding Leaks - HOWTO
Nicholaz Beresford has written up Finding leaks, a guide to how he's found so many of the viewer leaks. Give it a look!
Date Change
I'm bumping the date on SLDev-Traffic forward a day so I can free up my weekend. Monday evenings, I'll be writing SLDev-Traffic for all messages up to the prior Sunday. So yup - this one's a nine-day Traffic!
Thanks for readin'.