Re: gEDA-user: How to maybe get your favorite misfeatures fixed (was: Re: PCB question)

[al davis <ad136@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Monday 26 February 2007 21:46, Ales Hvezda wrote:
> Just a reminder that there are really only three ways to get
> misfeatures fixed (listed from the most effective to the most
> expensive):
>
> 1) Submit a patch for the misfeature to the appropriate patch
> tracker. 

So far, I have rarely found this kind of patches for bugs 
and "misfeatures" to be useful.  In the few cases where they 
are useful, there is still significant work tracking the side 
effects of the change.  People who are not regular developers 
on a project rarely understand the subtleties that are 
necessary for a proper fix.

Contributions of real new functionality are useful and extremely 
valuable, but still there is a quality issue.  That is another 
reason for gnucap moving to plugins, with a tiny core and 
almost everything in plugins.

That means that to me, usually #2 is actually more valuable:

> 2) File a bug report in the appropriate bug tracker and maybe
> one of the developers will feel motivated or a desire to fix
> it at some point.

Don't underestimate the value #3:

> 3) Hire a developer.  I'm sure there are several developers
> here who are willing to fix your favorite pet peeve.  But
> this, of course, won't be cheap, as everybody's free time is
> extremely valuable.

Financing the development of a project is a good way to push it 
in the direction you want it to go.  If there is money attached 
to a particular issue, I put the others aside and do that one 
immediately.  When there is no money involved, I do what is 
important to me and to those who I consider to be the most 
important users.

This IS the way things get done on lots of other free software 
projects, including most of those that are widely accepted.

I take issue with "won't be cheap".  If you consider it from the 
perspective of a commercial user, where the alternatives are 
proprietary software oppressive license issues and a high 
price, this option probably is cheaper, and will give you much 
more return on investment.

So, I agree that #3 appears to be the most expensive.  I believe 
can also be the most effective.  For a commercial user, it is 
probably cheaper than #1.



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