[kwlug-disc] OpenSource Me!

[unsolicited]

Bob Jonkman wrote, On 12/19/2008 7:26 PM:
> On 19 Dec 2008 at 18:45, unsolicited wrote:
> 
>> Any good reference works out there as to (a) if they only knew then
>> what they know now [designing things / environment / package better up
>> front instead of redoing the app multiple times, and (b) design
>> guidelines / suggestions / etc. as one dives in head first?
> 
> Very often you can't "know now" until you've gone through at least one iteration of a 
> failed implementation.  As you get people using your application you'll find out what it 
> is they really want to do which they didn't articulate in the first design phase.  Often 
> you'll end up coding yourself into a corner, and it becomes a great relief to start all 
> over again, knowing now what you would have liked to know then.
> 
> Watch out for the creeping feature creature. Start with a clear idea of what you want to 
> do, and stick to it.  Once you've coded yourself into a corner you can incorporate the new 
> features on V2.0.
> 
> Fortunately, it sound like Glenn has already been through one iteration of an unsuccessful 
> implementation with off-the-shelf products.  That'll go a long way towards getting the 
> design close to what your customers need.

Absolutely.

In thinking about what he has in front of him, and it could be very 
daunting (except he has a clear idea of his environment / distribution 
/ documentation / bug resolution, meaning his / him / him / him!), it 
re-occurs to me how sourceforge / OSS development is quite different 
from an in-house "write a c program and copy it everywhere" environment.

Thus I wondered if there were any good reference links to 'this stuff.'

And no offence was meant to Glenn earlier, he has very definite 
non-shrinkwrap niche market needs that can only be satisfied through 
customization. Rather I resonated with Paul's message, and too often 
things get caught up in 'our way' - leading to perpetual irritation 
and aggravation. e.g. It has been mentioned more than once in this 
list how if you customize a package, kernel, or otherwise, unless and 
until you can get those customizations incorporated into the source, 
you will have to re-apply those customizations with every new release 
or lose the benefit of security / bug fixes.

It all seems like a daunting amount of work for one guy, thus I 
wondered if there were good references out there.