[haiku-development] Re: Haiku, Inc. in Contempt of Its Community

  • From: Donn Cave <donn@xxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: haiku-development@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Mon, 16 Feb 2015 13:34:46 -0800 (PST)

Quoth Axel Dörfler,

> ... However, the point is, if you had followed the rules that 
> already existed since BeOS, everything should continue to work.

Not to beat a dead horse, but my point is, you should not say that
so often.

Not because it isn't true - honestly, I'm still not sure it is, but
I don't care if it's true or not.  Why would I care?

- will old application X work on PM Haiku?

  Who knows.  We're going to have to try it.

- Can I sue you for damages?

  No chance of this happening, so I don't care about the legal status
  of this claim.

- Could I have some moral high ground from which I could force you
  to make changes, if the claim were false?

  I believe the PM design is going to stay the way it is regardless
  of any discussion of what the rules were 20 years ago.  (Not to
  mention that I personally don't want any changes anyway.)

- Does the reported existence of these rules make any difference to me
  now, or anyone who's trying to make applications work on Haiku?

  No.

- Does it make anyone feel better about the whole thing?

  Well, it may make you feel better, but I'm suggesting that you find
  another way to make yourself feel OK about it, because this one really
  does nothing to ingratiate you with the people who were already irritated
  over the change.  Maybe we're irresponsible, lazy developers, who were
  just out to make a quick buck on BeOS applications while ignoring the
  standards?

The reality is that little if any of the software we're looking at now
comes out professional development efforts.  Haiku and late BeOS developers
are a bunch of spare time hackers.  Haiku documentation should bear this
in mind going forward and not expect developers to spend hours leafing
through documentation and taking notes.  If there's something we need to
know that we aren't going to find out in the course of making things work,
better make it abundantly obvious.

Anyway, I'm just saying maybe you should go easy on what sounds like a
"you screwed up" defense, used against the people who eventually will
help determine whether Haiku is any use to anyone.

        Donn

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