I mostly listen on this list. I just discovered QS about six weeks ago, and am now a huge fan. I'm a software engineer, but tight on time and I don't know Cocoa, so I'm unlikely to be able to contribute much useful in the near future, but I wanted to weigh in here...
One of the joys of git is ... many paths are possible. Fixing a few bugs and making your fixes available to create an even more stable release would be a huge contribution. I think that fixing a bug gets you digging into the code deeper than documenting stuff, but it's definitely a personal bias. Tackling something that you know can be done - Rob McBroom's suggestion #3 of the Triggers not getting saved consistently - has the benefit of giving you positive feedback in a short amount of time. (I'm claiming I know it can be done because people have said it was working a few changes in the source tree back, so a methodical approach will find the change that broke it in linear time :-) Cheers, Leonard On 1/9/11 9:29 PM, "Jordan Kay" <[email protected]> wrote: > So I'll come right out and say it: I don't believe for one second in > the power of open source for end user products. I compare what the > fate of Quicksilver has been since Alcor abandoned it, to where we > would be had he stayed onboard, and that's enough for me to shudder at > the notion of developing software this way. When you have a bunch of > mostly impartial parties hacking around on code that's been left like > an unwanted child, it's no wonder the application has been declared > "dead" by its once evangelists. Not to fault any of the current > contributors, whose work I appreciate immensely, simply the tragically > flawed system. The best software is usually developed by a small team > of developers who treat their product like their baby, exhibiting full > control of their masterpiece; Quicksilver is then probably the worst > candidate in history to go open source, simply for what's at stake, > but you can't change the past. > > That said, I want Quicksilver to succeed with every fiber of my being, > so just this once, I'll go against my strongest convictions, and try > in any way possible to get Quicksilver back on track. Unfortunately > open source doesn't let developers make money from work, losing an > entire dimension of incentive, so having a finally working, up-to-date > version of Quicksilver on the Mac App Store where it belongs may be a > lofty goal as a free app. We may never see the day, but I want to do > everything I can in to inch toward that goal. I've tried Alfred, I've > tried Launchbar, but their approach is so limited and leaves almost > zero room for growth that using those does nothing but make me want > Quicksilver to finally regain the legitimacy it more than any other > app deserves. > > So here are my questions. I'm a freelance Cocoa Developer who, while > still learning new things each and every day, feel comfortable enough > now with my skills to dive in head first. I've had some experience > with Quicksilver before (I wrote the OpenMeta Tagging Plugin), but I > feel like I've barely scratched the surface. The question is, where do > I start? What needs to be done? What would be the best course of > action to actually know enough to fix those seemingly trivial bugs > that have gone unfixed for years? Part of me wants to be ambitious and > take a month to study the entire source from front to back, but I know > that's sure to fall flat. > > I apologize for the rant, but it's very sad to see some of the > greatest software potential of this generation stagnate so badly with > such a flawed system. Any help or encouragemente would be greatly > appreciated.
