Hi Alexander,
It seems its always the fault of the developer when something
isn't
ideal. The developer should just write more devel docs, should just
write more docs, should just fix more bugs, should just communicate with
the community more, should just add that new important feature.
Actually I was blaming management not to manage the available resources
well enough. This could mean letting developers spend more time on
fixing bugs and communicating with/educating volunteers, or by setting
up structures that address these issues (package managers besides
package developers). I am well aware of the fact that individual
developers are pressed for time, but that is because management expects
certain things of them. So what I am saying is that management lacks
vision.
Why isn't it never the fault of the person who wants to fix a
difficult
bug that he didn't spend enough time trying to understand the code,
instead of the developer not spending enough time writing docs for
something that probably only that person needs.
Obviously trying to understand the code yourself is the approach often
taken. But that also often means a duplication of effort. On the one
hand I like this do it yourself approach, but on the other hand it can
be rather time consuming and diverging. I as a user have to manage
dozens if not hundreds of packages, and you can't expect me to
understand the internals of all of these. So I as a user need a place to
be able to take up my beef. And although many developers are very
responsive their lack of time often makes that they only half answer
your questions.
We do already spend time fixing bugs, and it is an essential part of
QA.
However you seem to want us to spend more time on that than we currently
do. The hard question is then: What would you want us then to not do
instead?
You have vast amounts of possible volunteers on these lists, which if
managed well could take some of the burden of your shoulders. I can see
that individual developers are taking part in managing these resources,
but I don't see an overall strategy. But then maybe I am expecting too
much of a BSDish approach...
Leonard.
--
mount -t life -o ro /dev/dna /genetic/research