[openbeos] Re: BeAPI++

Adi Oanca <adioanca@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Axel Dörfler wrote:
> > And then, developing new components and APIs shouldn't be in the 
> > hands 
> > of few people only
>       Yes, but each actual member has chosen its part.
>       New components need new people, because we can't do(assist) them 
> all. We 
> have our own stuff to improve. Each of us who has joined this project 
> became 
> an important part of the his team and in time managed to have their 
> opinion 
> count. Same could happen to new people if we let them! After a time 
> in which 
> they will be assisted by us, we no longer need to care if they do 
> things right.

Yes, but the time and effort needed to get someone into the right 
direction must not be underestimated. Of course, if that person would 
really do the job, it would perfectly be worth it - unfortunately, from 
20 people only 1 will continue to work if you're lucky (in my limited 
experiences, anyway).
I don't think it's worth to bury resources into something now that we 
don't need right now anyway.

> > - it takes a lot of discussion to create those and 
> > show the path into our future;
>       Do you know HTML? How about XML?
>       I don't. I bet that there is something that you don't know also. 
> It's impossible to 
> know them all.

Sure, I don't know much either, but that's not the ultimate point. If 
we had an expert for hardware accelerated 3d graphics in our team, sure 
he should work on that very subject.
We don't such people, though - these are hard to find anywhere.

>       People will join that team because they know something, and in time 
> under 
> some supervision they will became men/women to count on.

And that exactly is a very problematic point IMO, the burn rate is 
immense.

> > we don't have the resources right now to 
> > do such a thing, I'd think.
>       We, the team, no.
>       It's not hard to find good people in this community.

Sure, but they either are in our team, or have no time to commit to us.

> > IOW if someone develops something like this now, we won' stop him, 
> > but 
> > there can't be any guaranty that we can make use of that stuff 
> > later 
> > on, too.
>       Why is that?

Because we cannot spend the resources to get him into the right 
direction IMO.

> > If someone is willing to spend resources on our project, he should 
> > do 
> > it now in our current scope.
>       And... what should it do?
> Kernel?: not at everyone's hand.
> App_kit: ready.
> Interface_kit: 85% ready. No place left.

Not true at all; there is plenty of things there to be done. For 
example, I wrote a BScrollView class because there was none before. And 
some code is not finished there, too, like the BMenu stuff. Some code 
is very weak and uncomplete. It probably won't take long to fix those 
issues, but nevertheless, they have to be fixed.

> Support_kit: ready.
> Mail_kit: ready.
> Game_kit: almost ready. No place left.
> BFS+Storage_kit: ready. almost ready. No place left.
> Translation_kit: ready.(?) That's what I remember.
> network_kit: almost ready. no place left.
> media kit: almost ready. add-on phase. Any place left? Don't think 
> so.
> print_server: advanced state.
> input_server: ready.
> registrar: ready.

I am sure that many of these things could take some people.

> app_server: 5 people working. No place left.

Not really true either, regarding that you've recently found Christian 
(and probably others) to find some spots to optimize.

> drivers: enough. not at everyone's hand.

Not really enough; never really enough - but sure, it's not really that 
easy, too :)

> What else is there left to be assigned? I am *really* curious?

POSIX functions? Some apps? Do we have, for example, SerialConnect yet?
Oliver has recently taken over the job of working on a recent compiler 
and libstdc++ for us - there was no one for this job for years, and it 
didn't get that much publicity either, did it? ;)

> Why is it that I don't see any: XXX_kit/server help wanted in this 
> list? I'll tell you: there are no 
> more places to be assigned!

No, because there is probably no one on *this* list waiting to be 
recruited. Anyone who is already monitoring this list, and is willing 
to help out should have contacted one or the other team leader already 
(I would not believe it if not :)).

Bye,
   Axel.

Other related posts: