[Bese-devel] Introduction and questions...

[Henrik Hjelte]

On tor, 2005-11-10 at 08:17 -0800, Adam Jones wrote:

> Actually I think drew is on the right idea here. Someone (I think it
> was paul graham) commented on how an initial launch of a product that
> is not ready for use will lead people to not try additional versions.

Eric Raymond calls it the Cathedral method in his book the Cathedral and
the Bazaar. As a coincidence I started reading it yesterday. He
describes how he and most hackers used to believe in what you and Paul
Graham say, but that he changed his mind after observing the Linux
development model. Instead of seeing the bugs as problems you have to
hide from users, by only releasing stable versions, it is an attitude
more like "If you have more eyes all bugs are small". He calls the Linux
mode the Bazaar, and has a whole chapter with arguments why the Bazaar
method is better. Paul Graham is a hero and a guru, but I don't think he
has much experience from open-source projects [*]

> Although it is still not at a full release (0.14.3 with other packages
> even lower at the time of this writing) ruby on rails is usable now. I
> mention this because lisp on lines fits in the same product space for
> lisp as ruby on rails does for ruby. When anyone sees it they will
> draw comparisons between the two, and if LoL does not have the same
> kind of functionality that RoR did at release they will make some bad
> assumptions.
Is this even a problem? You can't win everyones heart. But *if* the goal
is world-domination there is an even bigger problem if things take too
long time. Especially if you compete with a project that is usable now.

> 
> I would say make the code available by request. That allows the people
> who really want to play with it (i.e. enough to send out an email) to
> get to it, and keeps anyone who is just browsing from getting a bad
> idea. It allows more eyes that are willing to help fix the problem to
> look at it.
It's a compromise. I can understand that if you develop something clever
it can be distracting to have lots of people asking questions,
commenting and asking for new features and so on. But there is also the
possibility that someone may bring good stuff to the project or solve
one or few bugs or add some documentation or find a corporate sponsor or
whatever.

/Henrik Hjelte

[*] What is happening with arc anyway, the new better Lisp from Paul
Graham? Still preparing for the grand opening I guess... 



> 
> -Adam
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