Ben Scott wrote:
On 7/27/06, Jason Stephenson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
In the commercial realm of closed source
software most programmers only get to see the code of the project(s) to
which they are assigned. They never get to see much code that's better
or worse than what they are used to seeing.
I think you've got a very good point there. Not just the code,
either, but the whole experience. Learning a FOSS project means you
have to learn the data structures and program flow of someone else's
code. You get to appreciate the value of good design and good
comments/documentation, and/or see how hard the lack of same makes
picking up a project.
All of this is true for a programmer coming in to an existing
closed-source project as well.
You also get to see, first hand, how software
evolves over time, and the consequences of bad work. You also see how
abuses and bad assumptions lead to software failures in the field.
Again, this is just learning from experience, it has nothing to do with
FOSS specifically. Stick with a closed-source project for a few release
cycles and you will see the same thing.
The availability of open-source code and projects increases the
opportunities to learn these lessons, but the lessons will be learned
from experience whether the code is open or closed.
Kent
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