Re: Trying to tell me something?

[Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie>]

On Wed, 13 Jul 2005, Bastien Nocera wrote:

> Date: Wed, 13 Jul 2005 18:18:02 +0100
> From: Bastien Nocera <hadess hadess net>
> To: Alan Horkan <horkana maths tcd ie>
> Cc: gnome-multimedia gnome org
> Subject: Re: Trying to tell me something?
>
> On Wed, 2005-07-13 at 17:24 +0100, Alan Horkan wrote:
> > I think someone is making a none too subtle point:
> > Marlin 0.8 - The Unix Philosophy Is A Lie

I've said "Do one thing well" perhaps a little too often.

> > Marlin 0.9 - Pithy Phrases Do Not Make Good Software Design

Someone else said that to me on the usability list recently.

> >
> > I'm trying my best here to provide constructive feedback.
> >
> > I'm sorry if I offended you in some way but if I have, please say
> > something and let me know what I could try to do better.
> >
> > I am only trying like everyone else to make Gnome better in my own way.
>
> Huh, and this is a personal attack how?

I hope it isn't but if it were I'd like to do something about it.

> (I mean, while we're at it, might as well know the nitty-gritty details)

I've been known on occasion to make suggestions that were not clearly
backed up with the best justification or unintentionally come across as
rude but usually my suggestions are pretty clearly just suggestions.

Some developers would rather not hear vague and unstructured feedback they
only want to see patches.  If I think I'm dealing with this kind of
developer I will find other things to do instead and not bother them
unless there is something very specific I badly want to change.

Other developers do like to have lots of suggestions to choose from and
even based on vague feedback they figure out themselves the best way to
improve things.  If I'm dealing with this kind of developer chances are
any patches submitted would be rewritten anyway so a good clear
description of the problem and a suggested solution is a better way to
spend my time.

Generally if I'm doing something wrong I'd prefer to be called on it
rather than allowed to keep digging myself into a hole.

-- Alan