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List:       kde-devel
Subject:    Re: KDE Development Policy
From:       Matthias Welwarsky <matze () stud ! fbi ! fh-darmstadt ! de>
Date:       2002-03-09 10:38:05
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Hi all,

while I personally don't think that KDE3 is a failure, I have to agree that the
development process could have been managed better. I'm not going to rant against
the release coordinator or the developers were part of the meeting in Nuernberg
(they did a pretty good job, IMHO), but managing a horde of developers across the
globe (and thus many timezones) requires a lot of diplomacy, too, especially when
coming close to the release date.

I especially dislike the decision to change the build system that close to the
release, without adequate notification and time for developers to accomodate.
Everybody is in pressure to get the last fixes done, and having to update core
tools and probably rebuild everything is taking precious time. You should have
taken into account that not all developers are able (or willing) to compile and
install arbitrary packages that are not supplied by their distribution vendors.
And _forcing_ them into a change is not what I'd call diplomatic. Please don't
argue "this is how open source works". If this is "Open Source" then it's shit,
because it abandons common sense.

In case the change also affected the translators I'm sure Lauri has some strong
words to add, too ;-)

I'd suggest the following: Add another week (or two) of hard code freeze for
kdelibs to give application writers a chance to catch up. Have a public release
candidate around for some time to see it being tested thoroughly before the final
release. And please, please take into account that not all developers are gurus
that can accomodate to arbitrary changes in the core system in _no_time.

regards,
    Matze


--
Matthias Welwarsky
Fachschaft Informatik FH Darmstadt
Email: matze@stud.fbi.fh-darmstadt.de

"I bet the human brain is a kludge."
                -- Marvin Minsky



 
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