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List:       kde-devel
Subject:    Re: feedback; bug reports
From:       James Richard Tyrer <tyrerj () acm ! org>
Date:       2007-11-14 22:05:09
Message-ID: 473B7115.5050805 () acm ! org
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Anne-Marie Mahfouf wrote:
> On Wednesday 14 November 2007 08:38:43 James Richard Tyrer wrote:
>> I am starting to feel as though I need to apologize for going to 
>> engineering school and studying EE & CS.  I figure that my 
>> instructors and the text books used were correct and I can pass 
>> this knowledge along unless people think that what is taught in 
>> software engineering courses in college had no validity and that 
>> they must learn it themselves by trial and error.  There is a large
>>  body of knowledge on the subject and it seems foolish to ignore 
>> it. I would hope that KDE developers have read several books on 
>> programing and would already know that what I said is true. Note 
>> that books on a language are not what I mean by books on programing
>>  -- knowing a computer language is necessary, but not sufficient to
>>  know how to write good programs.  This is also something which I 
>> was taught in college.
> 
> We all agree on what you say here. What we don't like are lengthy 
> mails telling us to do this and that, often with sentences we don't 
> even understand.

That is good to know.

> When you say a GUI has poor design, we'd like a patch with a good 
> design.

This was not about the GUI.  It was specifically about the fact that
including the name ("oxygen") of the default icon theme in the code was
a poor design practice.  This is not something simple for which there is
a patch.  OTOH, simply replacing it with: "default.kde" is so simple
that a patch would be unnecessary.

> Don't forget: we're humans,

That is why two heads are supposed to be better than one, isn't it?

> we did not study as well as you did (should I stop contributing to 
> KDE because I don't reach the standards you set?)

No, we are all supposed to be peers here and we should all contribute in
the ways which we can.  In doing so, we should respect each others'
ideas and thoughts.  However, pointing out an error in the code should
not be taken as personal insult.

Even comments such as: "Design twice & code once" which is intended as a 
helpful suggestion (as it was by the professor that I heard it from) is 
somehow taken as an insult.

> and we do it for fun in our free time.

Yes, and being involuntary retired on disability, I have plenty of free
time.

> That does not mean we don't want quality

I have to say that I wonder about that sometimes: are we all really
committed to quality? or, are other things more important?  We can each 
adopt the ideas of TQM.

> but that means the ones who have more strengths in one area must 
> contribute to balance the weaknesses of others. It's all about 
> complementarity.

Yes, and I am much better at design than I am at actual coding.  This
has been totally rejected by other members of the KDE community.
> 
> I don't have the knowledge you have, I did not go to college, you 
> have to balance my lack of it with yours.

Yes, I do not expect that you would know the stuff which I learned in
college.  But, the problem is that I offered some of that knowledge and
the reaction was not: could you please explain that in more detail?
(which I would be happy to do), but rather a sarcastic comment.

> Also, I'd be happy to get some books you refer to. This is also a way
>  of contributing.

Well, there are the classics in programing which I have only read parts
of except for the white book on C (which I own a copy of).  Probably my
texts from college ('70's) are out of print and a bit dated.  :-) -- 
even K&R's book is dated.  So, even if I could find them buried in my 
closet, that wouldn't be a good recommendation.  Actually any text on 
programing design would probably be helpful.  I also note that there are 
two associations: ACM & IEEE-Computer Society which both publish monthly 
magazines and journals as well as proceedings of the various conferences 
which they hold and they both have SIGs which have additional publications.

-- 
JRT
 
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