Don Redman wrote:
Yes, I know. I feel a bit that I am getting the blame for it, but I do
not think that is fair either.
No, definitely not. That's just my personal opinion. I'm simply not that kind of
person who likes to write lots of emails. That's all.
The big difference between a bug and a style issue is that if a
developer wants to fix a bug, it is enough if he understands all
ramificaitons of the bug and the fix, then he can fix it and most users
will never know what exactly happened (like which line of code got fixed
etc).
Style issues are the code for the interaction between humans and the
database. So _every_ human that engages in this interaction needs to
understand the code.
Well, not really. Only very few people are interested in all parts of the
"code". This is, IMHO, what delayed the whole DJ-mix/remix discussion. Everyone
here wanted to understand exactly evrery part of it even if they will never use it.
The style council therefore has to make sure
- that the code is applicable to all possible use cases
- that the users can understand the code
(and this includes that it is documented).
With programs this is easy: you just test the code and then you'll see
whether you covered all usage cases,
You can *never* cover all cases, that's why all programs are so buggy :)
and whether the interacting
elements (e.g. clients and servers or apps and libraries) really
interact well.
I have once proposed beta-editing. In such a case as yours, you could
change the AR types on test.mb.org and ask all interested parties here
to apply the new types to different artists. The debates would then turn
around _practical_ and _concrete_ issues and (hopefully) be less of a
waste of time. And it should be easier to find out whether the change
works or not. And the doucmentation could be built up in small steps
around use cases.
Ok, my latest proposal with azertus' improvements is implemented in
http://test.musicbrainz.org/.
The style council now is like a group of hackers trying to enhance a
program without writing a single line of code, just by discussing the
possibilities. Of course this is frustrating.
Indeed. And this is the reason why I said I don't want to be a part of style
council some time ago. But now I know, that if I want to get some AR type added,
there is no other way.
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