Re: [oc] Inquiry

[Niclas Hedhman <niclas@hedhman.org>]

On Thursday 08 May 2003 08:26 am, Rudolf Usselmann wrote:
> Who is going to maintain it all ? This is a lot of
> work, and I know I don't have the time to provide that
> much of free support for all my cores.
>
> And then all the great ideas about documentation. I don't
> have the time to learn XML. I just finally switched to the
> free OfficeTools that came with Linux, learned how to use
> them, how to make simple drawings and somewhat decent
> looking docs. And now XMl too ? Sorry can't do that !

One of my biggest idols in OSS, Stefano Mazzocchi at Apache, once said;

Good Ideas and Bad Code creates Great Commnuities.


What he meant was, if A introduces a good idea, but doesn't necessary have the 
time to do it, B may pick it up and together with C get it going. But they 
don't do a good job, and D really want to see it succeed, so D improves it. E 
doesn't know how to write code, but tries to use it, and finds it difficult 
to get it to work, so E produces some basic documentation for everyone else.  
And so on.... Not only code writers are considered contributors, even A 
above, is a great contributor even if A can't code.

One person should not do all by him/her-self.

Apache have a fairly extensive infrastructure to support so many projects, 
each with dozens or more developers / documentors. 
CVS is a center-piece, so that changes can occur concurrently, even in 
"branches" to be merged later, and more importantly, changes to be wound back 
to a previous state. This is used for both code and documents.


As for XML documentation. In a working community, some people knows it, some 
doesn't. Those who help out on documents are often not programmers, but want 
to help. Give them a bone and they will build up the meat. 
So, Rudi, if OC is brought to such level, don't worry, you could end up having 
MORE time instead of less.


Hope this gives some hope.
Niclas
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