Hi Marcus,

	this makes think about a challenge for our community (and I bet is not
restricted to squeak). I mean to reach the point of finishing our projects like
in manufacturing or woodwork being a hard stage to reach.

	I see development software as a never ending story but exactly for that
reason we need smart milestones. And those milestones will help more if they are
defined by real value achievements. By real value I mean real people having real
benefits. Nothing is more encouraging and motivational than that. On the
contrary, the lack of yield of real value produces erotion of any motivation.

	In comercial projects this is obviously mapping to a cashflow and
peoject's ROI but I see it also apply to non comercial projects as I noted.

	So this brings another important question: which criteria we should
prioritize to decide milestones? How do we achieve the win-win-win for our
projects?

	Marcus you bring us a very relevant discussion and reflection,

	thanks!

Sebastian Sastre


> -----Mensaje original-----
> De: squeak-dev-bounces at lists.squeakfoundation.org 
> [mailto:squeak-dev-bounces at lists.squeakfoundation.org] En 
> nombre de Marcus Denker
> Enviado el: Domingo, 30 de Marzo de 2008 17:09
> Para: The general-purpose Squeak developers list
> Asunto: [squeak-dev] The Old Man
> 
> 
> "One of the sad memories of my life is a visit to the celebrated  
> mathematician and inventor, Mr Babbage. He was far advanced in age,  
> but his mind was still as vigorous as ever. He took me through his  
> work-rooms. In the first room I saw parts of the original 
> Calculating  
> Machine, which had been shown in an incomplete state many 
> years before  
> and had even been put to some use. I asked him about its 
> present form.  
> 'I have not finished it because in working at it I came on 
> the idea of  
> my Analytical Machine, which would do all that it was capable 
> of doing  
> and much more. Indeed, the idea was so much simpler that it 
> would have  
> taken more work to complete the Calculating Machine than to 
> design and  
> construct the other in its entirety, so I turned my attention to the  
> Analytical Machine.'"
> 
> "After a few minutes' talk, we went into the next work-room, 
> where he  
> showed and explained to me the working of the elements of the  
> Analytical Machine. I asked if I could see it. 'I have never 
> completed  
> it,' he said, 'because I hit upon an idea of doing the same 
> thing by a  
> different and far more effective method, and this rendered it 
> useless  
> to proceed on the old lines.' Then we went into the third 
> room. There  
> lay scattered bits of mechanism, but I saw no trace of any working  
> machine. Very cautiously I approached the subject, and received the  
> dreaded answer, 'It is not constructed yet, but I am working on it,  
> and it will take less time to construct it altogether than it would  
> have token to complete the Analytical Machine from the stage 
> in which  
> I left it.' I took leave of the old man with a heavy heart."
> 
> 								
> 								
> 	--	Lord Moulton
> --
> Marcus Denker  --  denker at iam.unibe.ch
> http://www.iam.unibe.ch/~denker
> 
> 
> 
>