5 ms·

First of all, compassion and condolences for Schilling’s family. Second of all, I had a very recent positive interaction with him. I recently was in contact w

First of all, compassion and condolences for Schilling’s family. Second of all, I had a very recent positive interaction with him. I recently was in contact with Mr. Schilling to report a bug in CDR tools. Even though he was (looking back) dying, he was very prompt in replying to me and discussing the bug with me over email. However, even though I gave him a fix, he was unable to apply it, probably because of his poor health. Thirdly, there is a really serious bug in CDR tools: It will start creating bad timestamps in 2028. That’s not a typo: 2028 (not 2038). Because of how ISO 9660 filesystems store timestamps (8-bit number, 0 is 1900), on 2038 (1900 + 128), unless the 8-bit number is explicitly made an unsigned number (assumed with other ISO 9660 implementations), there will be issues with timestamps. [1] A full bug report, complete with a bugfix is here: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=990468 https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=990468 A fork of cdrtools with this bug fixed is on GitHub: https://github.com/samboy/iso9660 https://github.com/samboy/iso9660 Again, prayers for Schilling’s family, and he was very professional in his interactions with me, even in his final days. [1] The issue is with how Schilling’s CDR tools calculates timezones; the time zone becomes an invalid number starting in 2028.

rhabarba 5y ago
> While it has not been brought to court, some lawyers, include the Free Software Foundation’s legal counsel, feel the CDDL may be incompatible with the GNU General Public License (GPL). Which is irrelevant as the code does not contain any GPL code, right?
- strenholme 5y ago
  The cdrtools stuff is GPL because Schilling maintained the code after Eric Youngdale [1] stopped working on it. [1] Youngdale at one point was one of the Yggdrasil Linux developers, for people using Linux long enough to remember that long since abandoned distro.
  - rhabarba 5y ago
    Ah! I see. Thank you, I missed this part of the story.
sillysaurusx 5y ago
Hehe. I’m not sure someone’s epitaph is the appropriate place to report a bug. On the other hand, after thinking about it, I hope someone reports a bug in one of my tools in my obituary thread :)
- colejohnson66 5y ago
  Donald Knuth has a unique solution to the “bugs after death” problem. When he dies, TeX goes to version pi, and METAFONT to version e. All bugs become features.
- anon9001 5y ago
  > May his software immortalize him. I wish we had a better word for what strenholme is doing besides "maintainer". To have known the deceased and decide to continue their work is something special indeed.
- nefitty 5y ago
  It is sort of beautiful in a way. It reminds me of how people will look back on a musician's discography when they pass. For programmers, maybe looking through their code and the unique voice they expressed through it is what we do.
pantalaimon 5y ago
Well it looks like cdrtools is in need of a new maintainer now, if the outcome is that you carry on the legacy and let the tool live on, that would be great!
- strenholme 5y ago
  Yes, indeed, I’ve been annoyed that there isn’t a maintainer for the Debian port for a while. I will maintain the code based on the final pure-GPL version of the code, to avoid the entire licensing issue. If Eric Youngdale could come out of the woodwork and retroactively add a “CDR tools, as a special GPL exception, can integrate CDDL licensed code” clause, that might allow us to use Schilling’s more recent code, but, to be safe, I prefer to work with the older codebase to keep the license simple.
  - pantalaimon 5y ago
    > I will maintain the code based on the final pure-GPL version of the code, to avoid the entire licensing issue. But that's what Debian did already with wodim/cdrkit much to Jörg's dismay. I don't think it received much development and afaik never got BluRay support.
    - strenholme 5y ago
      The wodim / cdrkit stuff is what I would maintain -- there are a lot of bugs for it which have been ignored for too long: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?package=genisoimage https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?package=geniso...
  - toyg 5y ago
    > to be safe If the copyright holder is dead, there is nothing to be afraid of in violating his license, surely...? At worst you could ask his heirs to add that exception.
    - snerbles 5y ago
      It'll be up to the estate of the rights holder, and they are less likely to understand the nuances of open source licensing.
filomeno 5y ago
I guess there is a typo the second time you wrote "2038".
- strenholme 5y ago
  Yep, and of course the edit window is now closed so the typo now stays.
johnsea 5y ago
in > A fork of cdrtools with this bug fixed is on GitHub: https://github.com/samboy/iso9660 https://github.com/samboy/iso9660 I dedicate this repo this his memory. --> I dedicate this repo to his memory.
- strenholme 5y ago
  Fixed: https://github.com/samboy/img9660/commit/54f144a3367d559fc2275c88b6a70a210a1a7a91 https://github.com/samboy/img9660/commit/54f144a3367d559fc22...

rhabarba 5y ago

> While it has not been brought to court, some lawyers, include the Free Software Foundation’s legal counsel, feel the CDDL may be incompatible with the GNU General Public License (GPL). Which is irrelevant as the code does not contain any GPL code, right?

strenholme 5y ago
The cdrtools stuff is GPL because Schilling maintained the code after Eric Youngdale [1] stopped working on it. [1] Youngdale at one point was one of the Yggdrasil Linux developers, for people using Linux long enough to remember that long since abandoned distro.
- rhabarba 5y ago
  Ah! I see. Thank you, I missed this part of the story.

sillysaurusx 5y ago

Hehe. I’m not sure someone’s epitaph is the appropriate place to report a bug. On the other hand, after thinking about it, I hope someone reports a bug in one of my tools in my obituary thread :)

colejohnson66 5y ago
Donald Knuth has a unique solution to the “bugs after death” problem. When he dies, TeX goes to version pi, and METAFONT to version e. All bugs become features.
anon9001 5y ago
> May his software immortalize him. I wish we had a better word for what strenholme is doing besides "maintainer". To have known the deceased and decide to continue their work is something special indeed.
nefitty 5y ago
It is sort of beautiful in a way. It reminds me of how people will look back on a musician's discography when they pass. For programmers, maybe looking through their code and the unique voice they expressed through it is what we do.

pantalaimon 5y ago

Well it looks like cdrtools is in need of a new maintainer now, if the outcome is that you carry on the legacy and let the tool live on, that would be great!

strenholme 5y ago
Yes, indeed, I’ve been annoyed that there isn’t a maintainer for the Debian port for a while. I will maintain the code based on the final pure-GPL version of the code, to avoid the entire licensing issue. If Eric Youngdale could come out of the woodwork and retroactively add a “CDR tools, as a special GPL exception, can integrate CDDL licensed code” clause, that might allow us to use Schilling’s more recent code, but, to be safe, I prefer to work with the older codebase to keep the license simple.
- pantalaimon 5y ago
  > I will maintain the code based on the final pure-GPL version of the code, to avoid the entire licensing issue. But that's what Debian did already with wodim/cdrkit much to Jörg's dismay. I don't think it received much development and afaik never got BluRay support.
  - strenholme 5y ago
    The wodim / cdrkit stuff is what I would maintain -- there are a lot of bugs for it which have been ignored for too long: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?package=genisoimage https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?package=geniso...
- toyg 5y ago
  > to be safe If the copyright holder is dead, there is nothing to be afraid of in violating his license, surely...? At worst you could ask his heirs to add that exception.
  - snerbles 5y ago
    It'll be up to the estate of the rights holder, and they are less likely to understand the nuances of open source licensing.

filomeno 5y ago

I guess there is a typo the second time you wrote "2038".

strenholme 5y ago
Yep, and of course the edit window is now closed so the typo now stays.

johnsea 5y ago

in > A fork of cdrtools with this bug fixed is on GitHub: https://github.com/samboy/iso9660 https://github.com/samboy/iso9660 I dedicate this repo this his memory. --> I dedicate this repo to his memory.

strenholme 5y ago
Fixed: https://github.com/samboy/img9660/commit/54f144a3367d559fc2275c88b6a70a210a1a7a91 https://github.com/samboy/img9660/commit/54f144a3367d559fc22...