Re: gEDA-user: Google Summer of Code 2011

[Markus Hitter <mah@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Am 02.03.2011 um 05:40 schrieb Anthony Blake:

> Well if you want to do an ambitious project, you have to commit  
> long term to the project, and I didn't do that.but Kai-Martin's  
> attitude is a good example of why I'm no longer a gEDA developer.
>
> Kai-Martin: As well as using me as a counter-example, could you  
> provide some good examples of the sorts of projects you would like  
> to see?

Well, I'm not Kai-Martin, but these two sentences ring a bell here.  
If I unterstand you correctly you feel disencouraged, because some  
people tried to cut your project ideas into a realistic frame -  
_their_ frame - except of letting you hack away on gEDA for the year  
2030.

Yes, I can understand such frustration. It's a major challenge to be  
attractive for people with new ideas and - more important - get new  
things rolling on one side, while keeping existing stuff in a usable  
state. For example, you'll never get something into the repositories  
which cuts away some functionality with the promise to provide an  
alternative solution later. If you remove even tiny bits, undoublty  
somebody cries out loudly "I use that all the time and can't live  
without it". Best example: gEDA's three different footprint formats  
(lib, newlib with mil, newlib with 1/100 mil).

One plan would be to build a derivative from scratch. A fork or a  
rewrite. Be assured: _that_ is a lot of work. You'll have to be a lot  
better than the established counterpart, have to reach a similar  
level of maturity and even then, people will change over only slowly.

The IMHO much more promising plan to deal with this situation, which  
is very common in matured software suites, is to lay out a future  
plan. Tell the people what they can reach and why dropping this or  
that doesn't limit them, but will make them faster, more productive.  
Lay them out a transition plan, like keeping read-only functionality  
for the old format. That's how Windows and Mac OS X are done, and  
both are successful.

Then, follow this plan in achievable steps. Only working stuff  
matters.  Get the bricks of your bright plan built. Once you do  
smaller steps successfully, people will start to trust you. Drum up  
marketing for your  shiny new bricks, because even the most brilliant  
piece of code will go unnoticed if nobody tries it. Even if you don't  
want to be committed to the project long term, you'll feel more  
satisfied with a few new bricks in place, instead of having worked  
half a year on a shiny new picture, which is damned to collect dust  
on some rarely visited web site.

Ouch. Now I've probably confirmed all your received fun-stoppers.  
Biting through some granite can be even more fun, if you see the  
success afterwards.


Cheers,
Markus

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Dipl. Ing. (FH) Markus Hitter
http://www.jump-ing.de/







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