Re: Column View

[Ryan McDougall <ryan mcdougall telusplanet net>]

On Mon, 2003-12-01 at 21:56, John McCutchan wrote:
> Forgot to CC this to list.
> 
> ______________________________________________________________________
> To: Jeff Waugh <jdub perkypants org>
> Subject: Re: Column View
> Date: Mon, 01 Dec 2003 23:46:41 -0500
> 
> On Tue, Dec 02, 2003 at 01:24:08PM +1100, Jeff Waugh wrote:
> > This happens all the time, and it's a good thing. Say I post to the list
> > telling you that I would be very pleased to write a GNOME fstab editing
> > program. How useful is that going to be? Should it be done at all? Would we
> > ship it? Is it going to be useful to users? Is there a better way to solve
> > the problem?  Was there a problem defined in the first place?
> 
> But you are only looking at the short term. If a developer that is new
> to GNOME spends time developing an application that may be deemed
> useless for the official GNOME platform he will more likely to
> understand GNOME technologies and be able to contribute in a
> meaningful manner in the future. Someone who gets shot down at their
> first attempt may not bother to learn the GNOME technology and move on
> to a different project. 
> 
> John

Yes we should be encouraging, but we are also adults with responsibility
for the future of our software ( when I say "we" I probably mean "the
real developers" ;), and any idea needs to stand up to the rigour of
peer review. Mr O'Tierney is welcome to develop his patches, but we
cannot be obliged to include it if we dont agree that the changes are
beneficial. There is nothing wrong with debating the merits of any idea
-- if its a good one, it will eventually win out. Also we havent even
gotten to the point of how feasible it would be technically.

Let me put it to you this way: if a co-worker came up to you and said
she had a great idea for a hair-style she'd like to try on you, would
*you* let her cut your hair without discussing the desirability of doing
so?? Dont want to discourage hair-style innovation do you? ;)

Cheers,
Ryan