A forward look at KDE4 (was: "A look at GNOME 2.14...")

[Aaron J. Seigo]

On Wednesday 22 February 2006 09:47, Janne Ojaniemi wrote:
> Well, there is a problem here then. Many KDE-users are not coders. Myself
> included. I have zero coding-skills. Does that fact then mean that
> feedback/suggestions from me (or someone else who can't code) are by
> default less valuable that suggestion from someone who can and does code?

in a bare-knuckles practical sense, yes, they are not as valuable as they 
don't magically translate into working code.

this doesn't mean they aren't valuable. it's like a "bronze, silver, gold" (to 
steal from the olympics here) kind of thing. an idea is a bronze, an attempt 
at getting it done is a silver and a working patch is gold.

however, there are many ways to get involved beyond coding that help get ideas 
turned into reality. one of them is doing usability testing and research; 
another is contributing to things like documentation, translations and 
artworks (it's amazing how much quicker i'll whip up a patch for Lauri Watts, 
the docu-goddess herself, compared to a random user); etc.. some who aren't 
overly gifted on the coding front have done things like added WhatsThis help 
to applications (i wrote an article on how to do that a couple years ago, and 
several people took up the challenge quite successfully!)... there are always 
ways to get involved and help move things forward. even if they aren't always 
your ideas you are moving forward, by getting involved with the project your 
ideas actually have a better chance of finding their way into things.

and of course, there is the possibility that you could learn to code, if 
that's something of interest to you. many have done exactly that, and it's 
not actually all that difficult. in fact, i believe Scribus was started by a 
fellow who taught himself C++ as he went because he really, really wanted a 
good DTP app =)

> And my help does not include patches. Does it mean that my help is less
> appreciated?

no, not less appreciated. it just takes a lot longer to turn into reality, and 
people who turn ideas into reality have the most value to the user base. 

-- 
Aaron J. Seigo
GPG Fingerprint: 8B8B 2209 0C6F 7C47 B1EA  EE75 D6B7 2EB1 A7F1 DB43

Full time KDE developer sponsored by Trolltech (http://www.trolltech.com)
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