Needed?? The Suggestion Box??

[Aaron Seigo]

On March 30, 2005 9:22, Nathan Olberding wrote:
> This may be slightly off topic, but I think more people would be able
> to contribute patches and Show Us The Code if the application in
> question was written in a higher level language than C++.

yes, higher level language use in applications is going to become increasingly 
important across the board for this and other reasons.

> 1) keep up with CVS,

generally you don't have to unless you are working on a core component.

> 2) dive in to C++ code, studying until I understand what's going 
> on with it (even in a relatively simple chunk of code!),

this can be true of any app in any language, unfortunately =(

> 3) edit, 
> compile, test, edit, compile, etc.. And even then, that only proves it
> works on my machine.

which is all you need to prove, really ... while carelessly non-portable code 
is frowned upon, you don't need to prove it works everywhere ...

> Then, other people who have the time to keep up 
> with CVS have to test my patch.

this is also true with any language, really.

> If I were unemployed, this would be a lot easier.

heh.. just everything else in life would be harder ;)

> If an app I used 
> were written in PyKDE, keeping up with / understanding / patching /
> testing code would be several orders of magnitude easier, and I'd have
> the ability to help. For that, it'd be a lot easier if PyKDE / SMOKE
> bindings / etc were in the main KDE source distro (which I hear
> they're going to be?).

it's a goal some of us have for KDE4. no hard decisions or plans at this 
point, however.

> I'm just saying, "show me the code" is a very true and realistic
> attitude, but currently, most people's answer is going to be "the code
> doesn't make sense to me", or "I'll do that next time I have an entire
> day of free time."

even if we do go with Python or Ruby more in the future, i don't think the "10 
minute contributor" will ever become much of a reality, really.

there are also many other ways one can help contribute towards KDE 
development. providing code is the most direct way, but there are others. and 
here, as with coding, clarity in direction and adhering to that direction as 
a contributor affects the smoothness of that process

-- 
Aaron J. Seigo
Society is Geometric
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