http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/2003/06/22.html#a730

Engines, steering wheels, and open source

"... Creative programming is a deeply addictive behavior...." 

"What open source projects often lack is not the engine, but the
steering wheel.... Paul Everitt, co-founder of Zope Corporation, puts it
this way: "We suck at finishing work." Writing documentation doesn't
make endorphins flow. Neither does organizing a usability study, or
doing triage on bug reports, or writing a bulletproof installer, or
internationalizing a product for fourteen languages, or creating an
intuitive user interface.... "

"The SpamBayes engine is open source software that could be integrated
with any email program. Most open source folk wouldn't want to actually
do that integration. But Mark Hammond saw it as an interesting
challenge. He did the finishing work: packaging up the Python
distribution needed to run SpamBayes and the plug-in, writing the
user-interface code that enables the plug-in to work with my Outlook
filters and folders, and delivering the whole thing as a clickable
installer."

"I once asked a pair of open source wizards if they were inspired by the
thought that their software could improve the lives of millions of
people. Nope. "We build infrastructure for other developers," they said.
"If they use it to make software that makes people happy, then fine, but
it's not what motivates us." 

Some of this the Squeak community does well. Some not so well, such as
an intuitive user interface.

Cheers,
Darius







































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