Re: some details

["Murray Cumming" <murrayc murrayc com>]

> On Wed, 2004-04-08 at 20:01 +0200, Angel Costa wrote:
[snip]
>> For the future (2.10 and beyond) could it be possible to create
>> the design before create anything?
[snip]
> 	I know what you mean, but in open source communities everything is done
> by people with little time on their hands, so if you want something done
> you basically have to do it yourself.
[snip]

I'd also like to point out that I see more (and better) high-level
requirements and design work done as part of GNOME development than I see
in most proprietary projects. It's not formalised, and it's not all
gathered together in one place in any standard format, but it gets done.
Often it's a series of conversations rather than documents. And it's
subject to a great deal of review and criticism.

The need for detailed design specs is lessened a bit because we have
several existing standards (API styles, HIG UI guidelines), so it's fairly
obvious how things will end up looking.

Where you absolutely need a spec they do get done - e.g. freedesktop.org.

Also, where a lack of design leads to software of low quality, that
sofware will be fixed/redesigned eventually when the problem becomes
obvious, or that (modular) software will be replaced with something that's
better designed.

So, it could be better (if someone does the work), but it's not that bad.


Murray Cumming
murrayc murrayc com
www.murrayc.com
www.openismus.com