package shepherding

Leonard den Ottolander leonard at den.ottolander.nl
Tue Mar 9 12:08:16 UTC 2004


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






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