Ex Bibliotheca

The life and times of Zack Weinberg.

Friday, 8 July 2005

# 2:15 PM

end of an era

Last week I ended my tenure as an active GCC developer. Yesterday I completed my last outstanding obligation to CodeSourcery. It has been something like eight years since I first subscribed to the EGCS project mailing lists. I now have two months' vacation and then I begin graduate studies in UC San Diego's cognitive science department.

I'm not sure how I feel about this. I used to get about a thousand emails a day — GCC wasn't the only free software project I kept tabs on — now it's down to a handful, from friends and relations. I don't plan on going back anytime soon, if only because I've tried to do grad school once before and I know I don't need the distraction. Still, GCC's been an important part of my life for nearly a decade and I'm sorry to leave.

Mind, I haven't been doing much in GCC development for a good year now. This is because CodeSourcery was paying me to do other stuff, which soaked up all of the time I was willing to spend programming. Sadly, this means I leave GCC with an awful lot of my personal projects unfinished. (The little imp in the back of my head that says 'you could do them now, you're not being paid to program anymore, it would be fun again' can just shut up ... see above about distraction.)

Now, being unemployed on vacation, I have time to do things like wander round the city more. Yesterday I went with a friend to the Conservatory of Flowers, which is full of rare tropical plants. I found the room of aquatic plants — giant water lilies, pitcher plants, and so on — to be the most interesting. And then in the evening my housemates and I went to 12 Galaxies where Dan Bern was playing. Good stuff that.