On Friday 08 March 2002 11:48 pm, Neil Stevens wrote:
> While these problems are bad enough, they in turn throw up further
> obstacles to a stable release:
>
> 1) When users and developers cannot build KDE, they cannot test KDE
> 2) When developers are locked out of KDE builds, they cannot
> contribute fixes.
> 3) When the credibility of the KDE release policies are called into
>    question, users and developers are less likely to feel that
>    testing is of value, and stop participating.
>
> The credibility of the release policies are further damaged by the
> manner in which the decisions are made.  For instance, the major
> change to libtool, there was a minimum of discussion, with no
> compelling bugs or reasons shown for making this drastic change.  In
> cases like this, the whims of a few dictate large change for the
> masses.

I agree with you that changes to the admin dir are disruptive and a hassl=
e for=20
everyone. That makes it a painfull change but not a wrong change. There a=
re=20
very few people with intimate knowledge about the magic in the admin dir =
and=20
those two people are to my knowledge Stephan Kulow and Michael Matz (let =
me=20
know if I forgot someone). So when those two people agree and consider it=
=20
necassery that things get upgraded before 3.0 then that is what happens.=20
That's not because of the "whims of a few" but because of the "well thoug=
ht=20
out decission by the people responsible for that part of KDE."

Where it went wrong is the communication of such change to the rest of KD=
E.=20
Especially because it is disruptive it is important that such changes are=
=20
communicated clearly to everyone involved. If you, as a developer, make a=
=20
change to something in KDE that may affect others, make sure that you inf=
orm=20
those others about it. It doesn't matter whether it is a BIC change in=20
KConfig, a new string in KEdit or an upgrade of the admin dir.=20

KDE is a very big project and such communication is very important. It wi=
ll=20
only become more important when KDE grows bigger. Proper communication is=
 a=20
responsibility for everyone of us.

Cheers,
Waldo
--=20
Reports of KDE 3's Death Have Been Highly Exaggerated