Re: To answer your question about the upcoming Style-Guide...

[George <jirka 5z com>]

On Fri, Jul 24, 1998 at 10:17:12AM -0700, Berin Loritsch wrote:
> Remember to KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) in all things.  The way some of you
> are talking, it reminds me of a young, married couple.  They want everything
> their parents have, but can't pay for it all.  Consequently, they go into debt, hate
> each other and get divorced.  The analogy is their because some among us want
> elaborate help systems and configurable everything, but forget the cost in time,
> frustration, blood, sweat, and tears required to make these things work.

well I wouldnt' worry about that too much ... most free software developers
are not motivated enought to do something as (programatically speaking)
boring as a dancing manual ... if an author is for some reason complled
to write a help system, it will most likely end up to be very simple

> >From one of the best KISSers out their, let's get a sanity check.  Be wary of
> new *features*, and try a sample test app to see if the thing really works

wow .. that sounds like if we were doing some project that needs to be too
stable

to illustrate .. here's how new features get into the panel:

yesterday as I was finishing up at work (around 11pm) ... I thought it
would be cool to add drawers instead of just menus from the add to panel
menu ... so I wrote it down ... got home .. implemented it ... it looks
cool, seems to work, doesn't seem to have broken anything ... ok ...
commit ...

the thing with this style of development is that people get to bitch and moan
about something that's already implemented, taking the discussion off of
the theoretical level, into an implementation specific level ...

if my change is not liked, I'll either revert the change ... or ignore
email and act like nobody complained :) ... as the maintainer I seem to have
contracted that privilage :)

the discussion here should move away from "windows start menu sucks" and
"we need turkish bellydancers to show off the way the panel works" to
"what can be done to improve the current panel, working with that as the
base"

if you propose something that I think is a cool idea .. and I feel like
implementing it ... I will ... if you propose something that I either
don't care about ... or it is something that I don't like .. or
something that I just plain don't feel like doing ... you're on your own
... but I do welcome patches ... this is the way free software
development has always worked .... discussion never got anywhere ...
usually the only way to convince a maintainer about a point is a patch
...

I don't code the panel for money ... I don't code it for higher
principles either ... I don't even code it as something I need to use
... I put features in it .. because I think they're cool ... if it was
something I would just want to use, it would end up being very simple
launcher ... but it's been so much fun adding and playing with applets
.. and it's kind of kewl when other people can write their applets ...
basically people should remember that most people code free software
for fun ... not for anything else ...

George

-- 
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
George Lebl <jirka@5z.com> http://www.5z.com/jirka/
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