string work

hi,

i'm back from a weekend abroad, and a little bit overwhelmed by the
sheer amount of mails regarding pika strings that i've found in my
inbox. after a quick perusal, it seems like Matthew is already working
on pika strings, advancing at his usual quick pace, right?

hm. given the amount of time i can devote to pika, i would need a week
to read all the relevant postings, then enter into hackerlab, then
catch Matthew's code... by that time, it seems like i'd be of little
use, wouldn't i?

tom, i think i really need a quiet corner of pika to hack on (at a
calm, slow pace) for the time being; otherwise, i'll become a
bottleneck. right now, i can hardly follow your discussions on the
list(s). i'd need to know better the pika innards. to that end, i'd
like to hack slowly on something complex enough, but probably out of
the critical path, so that i can take my time. what do you think? is
there such a corner?

or am i panicking without reason? :)

cheers,
jao
-- 
Nature uses as little as possible of anything.
  -Johannes Kepler, astronomer (1571-1630)