On 2 September 2013 23:36, Joseph Rushton Wakeling < joseph.wakel...@webdrake.net> wrote:
> On 02/09/13 14:51, Dicebot wrote: > >> But do you seriously expect anyone with no personal business interest to >> work on >> brining more of such crap into something that is not broken? You would >> have had >> my sympathy but demand "Let's force everyone to use IDE" is just insane. >> All >> this thread would have made some sense if some enterprise D entity has >> existed >> but it simply does not work that way right now. And, to be honest, I am >> glad >> about it. >> > > Personally I find, observing a number of different open source projects, > that a very typical problem is a kind of "selection bias" among > contributors that leads them to significantly under-appreciate the > usability problems of their software. > > It goes something like this: anyone who has spent any length of time using > that software (which of course includes most contributors) either had a > workflow and toolchain that the software matched with, or they have been > able to adapt their workflow and toolchain to enable them to use the > software. Usually they have managed to find ways of coping and working > around any other usability issues that arise. And that situation then > compounds itself over time because new users come and either adapt in the > same way that existing contributors have, or they leave. > > So, you wind up with a body of contributors who often have much in common > in terms of their setup, their perception of the priorities, and in their > ability to handle the software. And that in turn can be very dangerous, > because you get people who simply don't understand (or have any way to > experience) problems that are brought to them by new users or by others. > > And of course there are always greater problems than usability, so those > problems are the ones that get focused on, with the developers all the > while bemoaning the lack of manpower and wondering why it is so difficult > to attract and hold on to contributors. > I think this is a very interesting point. The only way that I can see to avoid that trap is to have a strong focus on > usability as part of your development process, to make sure that developers > have good connections with a diverse range of potential users and their > experiences, and (where possible) for developers to dedicate part of their > time to actually trying to undergo that experience themselves. > > The TL;DR of what I'm saying here is: while it's certainly crazy to force > D contributors to use IDEs, there's a great deal of value in making sure > that a good number of contributors regularly get IDE experience, and > regularly try out "fresh start" installs of D in IDE and non-IDE > environments, because that way you have a sense of how easy or painful it > is for new users to get things installed and just get hacking. > Thank you.
