On Thu, 29 Sep 2011 08:53:28 -0400 "Lynn W. Deffenbaugh (Mr)" <ldeff...@homeside.to> wrote:
> WONDERFULLY STATED! I have been agonizing on whether to decloak and > write something similar to your essay, but you said it very well. I'd > only add one more point to ponder. > > Many of us developers don't lean toward open source code simply because > of time constraints. We'd rather take our time and work on the code and > the functionality than to take that same time (and more) to explain > what's already been done, why it was done that way, why another way is > (or is not) better, and to review the proposed changes to consider > adopting them into the baseline. And, if the implication of "thousands > of eyes" interested in my pet project is true, that could easily swamp > all available time for the original developer to the point that s/he > throws up hands and walks away from the project because it's just too > demanding and nothing is actually being DONE! If you've written good code and good comments, you shouldn't need to take the time to do this. If you *haven't* written good code and good comments, you haven't a hope of understanding it in six months time. I and many others know this from experience ;-) > Thanks, but no thanks. I'll continue to be open to suggestions (and > sometimes insistence) for new features/functions to be added to my own > project, but that's about the extent of it. When I die or become no > longer interested or capable of continuing development, I plan to find > another dedicated developer (if any are available that are willing to > put up with G4ILO's picture of such development at > http://blog.g4ilo.com/2010/10/advice-to-amateur-programmers.html) or > I'll be posting the whole enchilada to a source code repository and let > it be Open. What's stopping you posting it to a source repository with the caveat that if you want to dig around in it, you're on your own? That's pretty much what I do. G4ILO has a fairly "interesting" attitude to it all, but his last paragraph is just about the truest thing written about software, ever. RTFM and say thank you. Oh, and send in bug reports and (if you have access to the source) patches! -- Gordon JC Pearce MM0YEQ <gordon...@gjcp.net> _______________________________________________ Sent via AMSAT-BB@amsat.org. Opinions expressed are those of the author. Not an AMSAT-NA member? Join now to support the amateur satellite program! Subscription settings: http://amsat.org/mailman/listinfo/amsat-bb
