Need to do something
Andreas Raab
andreas.raab at gmx.de
Wed Oct 12 22:10:27 UTC 2005
All -
Since I got a few off-list notes, let me make a clarification about the
chess game example:
Andreas Raab wrote:
> [*] As a matter of fact that is one of the main reason that stopped me
> to do anything for this community - if people who have no idea of the
> subject matter start "beautifying" my code so that it looks better to
> their swollen eyes, then I'm out. I *know* when I'm using a pattern like
> "foo == nil" instead of "foo ifNil:" and I expect you to respect my
> preferences if I want to emphasize a particular aspect in the code. Just
> looking over what people have done to my code in the chess game makes me
> want to barf - not one person who has touched it has had any idea
> whatsoever how the thing works; yet they feel utterly qualified to
> rewrite and reformat code they don't even understand. Bah!
The point in the above is not about anyone's particular change but a
generic expression of disgust about a process that actively destroys the
necessary sense of ownership in code. Put simply, it means: If something
is "my code" then "you" can't rewrite it over the top of my head. The
owner of the code *has* to be involved in the process. If the owner
isn't involved, then he/she/they no longer own that code. Meaning that
the current and past harvesting process, where fixes get through despite
nobody who has any relation to the code in question is looking at the
changes is actually making the situation worse, because any time you do
this you destroy the sense of ownership a bit more[*].
The only reason I used the chess game as an example for this process is
because I wrote it and because I noticed how the code changed over the
years (without any guide or harvester *ever* talking to me).
[*] This is also what I mean when I talk about the current process
competing with development in packages. The fact of the matter is that
Stefane and Marcus actively destroy the sense of ownership in the
packages by having their "private 3.9a versions" and happily making
changes to those packages locally in the 3.9a repository. Sorry, this
simply won't fly.
Cheers,
- Andreas
More information about the Squeak-dev
mailing list
|