[Pkg-bitcoin-devel] bfgminer package

[Dmitry Smirnov]

Hi Luke,

Thank you for your comments.

On Mon, 29 Apr 2013 21:31:12 Luke-Jr wrote:
> On Monday, April 29, 2013 7:32:08 AM Dmitry Smirnov wrote:
> > When I decided to package `cgminer` I had a quick look at `bfgminer`
> > but I couldn't figure out how is it different from
> > `cgminer`. Apparently there is no documentation (or I wasn't able to
> > find it) that highlight improvements over `cgminer`.
> 
> The initial improvements were the driver abstraction and FPGA support. Over 
> time, it has grown to include numerous bugfixes, various other general 
> improvements, ASIC support, etc.

If we're going to package `bfgminer` it would be nice to document the
differences from `cgminer`. Otherwise it would be hard to choose between them.
I've never tried `bfgminer` because `cgminer` appears to be better
documented.


> > Moreover it isn't clear why `bfgminer` exist: `cgminer` is very
> > actively developed so why forking it? Did you try to merge your
> > changes with `cgminer`? It appears to me that both projects share so
> > much in common that existence of fork is hardly justified.  I realise
> > that `bfgminer` often pulls from `cgminer`. Is there flow of
> > patches in opposite direction?
> 
> For a time, the cgminer author was willing to collaborate and merged BFGMiner
> changes into his tree. However, when his GPU miners were made effectively 
> obsolete, he took a hostile position and forked the project, giving management 
> of the code I maintained to another guy and rejecting all future updates I 
> made to the master codebase, including bugfixes (with very few rare 
> exceptions).

Sad story... :(


> > Besides I know one particular pool (Ozcoin) that recommend `cgminer`.
> 
> There are also many pools, including ones which are not detrimental to the 
> Bitcoin network (as Ozcoin is), which recommend BFGMiner.


Of course. I have impression that Ozcoin doesn't really cares that much about
miners. Perhaps they just have been using `cgminer` and were quite happy with
it.


> > I do not wish to bring yet another miner especially if it have little
> > improvements that couldn't be merged due to lack of cooperation
> > between authors but not due to technical reasons.
> 
> The cgminer developers have reiterated their refusal to collaborate as 
> recently as earlier this year. There is nothing I can do about that.

I see... Well then perhaps we need to find out which miner we're going
to support. It is a difficult decision.
I think Mesa mining is a big argument for `bfgminer` so I'm going to try it
when I have time.


Cheers,
 Dmitry Smirnov
 GPG key : 4096R/53968D1B

---

Each generation imagines itself to be more intelligent than the one that
went before it, and wiser than the one that comes after it.
        -- George Orwell, Review of "A Coat of Many Colours: Occasional
           Essays" by Herbert Read, Poetry Quarterly (Winter 1945)---