On Jun 25, 2013, at 9:26 PM, H.S.Rai wrote: >> There's an argument that having poor usability categorically makes BRL-CAD >> "not wonderful". > > Looks like he prepared ground before stating something not good ;-)
Almost certainly, but we cannot afford to sugar coat our deficiencies. Usability is our #1 problem as an open source project. Fixing usability is a primary priority [0]. We just need to be honest about our strengths and weaknesses. We have plenty of both. Not overly critical or complimentary where undue. However, saying our interface needs to be better and understanding why we have a deep problem are very much intertwined... it's a complex topic. We have to be aware of how and why we have this situation. Philosopher George Santayana said the infamous words in 1905 that "those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." In that same quotation, he said something else that I think is even more relevant to working on old code: "Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. When change is absolute there remains no being to improve and no direction is set for possible improvement: and when experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual." To me, that says to respect the existing code. There is experience and value embodied. Understand the history. Pay attention to the context. Extract value reusably. Refactor incrementally. Improve. Cheers! Sean [0] http://brlcad.org/BRL-CAD_Priorities.png ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ This SF.net email is sponsored by Windows: Build for Windows Store. http://p.sf.net/sfu/windows-dev2dev _______________________________________________ BRL-CAD Developer mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/brlcad-devel
