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#109 2005-01-18 14:19:35
Re: rc2 and 1.0
And it begins, I suppose, the accountability of 1.0…
It seems that near every release date/update/etc, in any message board we have 3 types of people:
The Loyalists: These are those that just wish everyone asking questions would shut up. Don’t ask questions. 1.0 will get here when it gets here. Go get a life.
While Textpattern is free and only has one man at the helm, they have good reason to just let Dean do what he does, and if we see 1.0 soon, great. If not, that is his prerogative and we just have to deal with it. Like an open source dictatorship, we the users cannot hold him accountable for anything.
Then there are the those in the middle. While they love the software and have respect for the developer(s), if the developer sets a release date, misses it and we don’t hear anything for a week, questions will arise. It’s wrong to dismiss these questions. They are valid. Even if the software is free, the developer that has a community this large with valid reasons to use an “official” release (i.e. easier to sell clients on Textpattern, etc), then that developer should be held accountable. We’re not asking for a lot, especially for free open source software, but some sort of communication is desired. Free/open source is not excuse for lack of communication. Especially when the community is this large and some users are professional and well recognized in the development/design community.
Of course, there is always the mob. They will speak of the death of the project. Hurl insults and nay say till our ears fall off. Fortunately, this community is very tame compared to others and for that I think we should all pat ourselves on the back.
Yes, we should have patience. This is free and open source software. We cannot expect the kind results you get from a team of well paid developers.
However, this is no excuse for lack of accountability. If you set down a release date and miss it, tell us what’s going on. We were all well receptive when we found out Dean was sick. Whatever he comes in here and says, I am sure we will all be receptive to it. Just some communication, I don’t think that is too much to ask.
Just my two cents.
Liberal. Geek.
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#110 2005-01-18 15:12:40
Re: rc2 and 1.0
Why Textpattern 1.0 is late, you ask? Just follow the Textcam and you’ll know…
> gonzo409 wrote:
> It seems that near every release date/update/etc, in any message board we have 3 types of people:
And now there are 4 types, with the idiot…
g.
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#111 2005-01-18 15:19:44
Re: rc2 and 1.0
Oh heavens, I accept (within reason) all the flack people can muster about missed dates, lack of communication, the occasional disappearing act. I’m hardly barking back with is it not free enough for you? or you’ll get it when you get it. Please know I do understand the frustration brought about by the, oh, let’s say, quirky path Txp development has taken. My only defense lays stretched along the (completely ass-backwards) path I took to becoming a software developer, ‘serious’ aspects of which have only begun to materialise in the past year: I’m not doing this after 20 years of shipping software, and I’m still playing catchup. When people say versioning should have gone like this and structural code philosophies should have been embraced like that, I do listen, though this has led to a fair bit of back-to-the-drawing-boardishness. To those who cry out about levels of professionalism and public relations: yes, you’re quite right.
Strange paragraph that, on reread.
Anyway to confirm/deny a few things:
- there won’t be a lot of new features in 1.0
- there however will be a roadmap for new features released with 1.0 (flexible urls and atom & xmlrpc support being the highest thereon)
- the ‘official’ development team will indeed be expanded beyond those sitting at my desk
I genuinely planned to have 1.0 released last Monday, but it didn’t happen. Too many things needed fixing. Right now, it’s looking like Friday.
Oh, anyone using IIS willing to try 1.0 and confirm a couple suspicions of mine, please get in touch by email.
Underpants.
text*
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#112 2005-01-18 15:25:42
Re: rc2 and 1.0
Good to hear!
Liberal. Geek.
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#113 2005-01-18 15:29:52
Re: rc2 and 1.0
(ok, I’ll bite) Ha…he said “underpants.”
You know, something I just noticed, not that it means a damn thing. The “mob” crowd seems composed of those with less than 10 posts on this board. Strange.
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#114 2005-01-18 15:36:09
Re: rc2 and 1.0
Yeah, I think my point was well made in by the following post. Patience is a virtue… so I’ve heard.
Dare I close with… boxer briefs?
Liberal. Geek.
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#115 2005-01-18 16:18:29
Re: rc2 and 1.0
> Dean wrote:
> Right now, it’s looking like Friday.
And if I may be so bold as to parse that totally of my own accord: as of this time, barring further (potentially likely) complications, it is projected we could see 1.0 by Friday.
But if it doesn’t happen by the stroke of midnight where ever you live, don’t get your “Underpants” in a wad (um, that’s not in the “parsing,” I added that on my own).
Thanks for the update, Dean. And the reminder that you are One Human Being, with a Life. Don’t forget to feed the dogs.
TextPattern user since 04/04/04
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#116 2005-01-18 19:30:02
- Method
- New Member
- Registered: 2004-10-21
- Posts: 6
Re: rc2 and 1.0
Awesome, Dean. Thanks for the update.
You might want to take a look at a book called “The Success of Open Source”. It deepened my understanding of open source and made it seem less like voodoo. One of the questions that the author investigates is “Does Linus Scale?” He asks this in relation to his major theme or finding, that the success of open source software development is strongly determined by the quality and style of its leadership. The historical answer to this question is no; Linus had to learn to delegate more and more decisionmaking authority to others.
Very likely, textpattern will never grow beyond the size and complexity that it can’t be effectively administered by more than one person—to do so would in fact break its major selling feature, its elegance. But it may be that Dean doesn’t scale when he is overly involved in the coding, the bugtesting, bugfixing and in keeping his public updated (and running a business). The immediate result of having more people directly involved in the development would be more people knowledgeable about the progress of the project. Plus, while a natural fear with adding more people is that the concept will be dilluted, proper differentiation can lead to honing of strengths. An inner core development team might consist of a dreamer for proofs of concept(Linus/Dean), a code-hardener, a maintenance team, i8ln, etc.
Another point from the book is that because GPL guarantees the “right to fork”, all authority in oss must be freely given to a respected leader, and is founded on nothing but the desire for common cause and conservation of effort. greenrift, for example, has extended textpattern with albumpattern, but has specifically not represented it as a fork. Likewise with the notes hack. They do this out of respect for the main effort, and because of a (present) lack of interest in a fork. The best thing would be to incorporate efforts such as these, and to invite these developers in.
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#117 2005-01-18 20:01:04
Re: rc2 and 1.0
yay, thanks dean! looking forward to friday(-ish) but, i agree with reid, do not forget to feed the dogs.
i’m of the fifth group (the silent majority?) that is happily working along on their txp site blissfully unaware (largely) of the conflicts and tussles occuring over the 1.0 release..
… in other words, underpants indeed.
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#118 2005-01-19 00:17:09
- Boogenstein
- Member
- From: Wausau, Wisconsin, USA.
- Registered: 2004-03-28
- Posts: 56
Re: rc2 and 1.0
When and where I grew up we called them ‘rammies’!
I’m firmly with group 5 and andrea. If TXP was to never change from where it is now, I’d still carry on happily using the first blogging/CMS software I have come across that has never broken down and caused me untold strife getting things fixed.
No rush Dean, don’t just feed the beasties, take them for a bloody long walk too!
“Keep a straight face and you’ll be laughing!”
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#119 2005-01-19 00:47:45
Re: rc2 and 1.0
Good to hear from Dean. And a good news he is leading toward 1.0.
I’m still worried about the ^^wonâ
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#120 2005-01-19 02:50:39
Re: rc2 and 1.0
> Boogenstein wrote:
> When and where I grew up we called them ‘rammies’!
> I’m firmly with group 5 and andrea. If TXP was to never change from where it is now, I’d still carry on happily using the first blogging/CMS software I have come across that has never broken down and caused me untold strife getting things fixed.
> No rush Dean, don’t just feed the beasties, take them for a bloody long walk too!
I am happy with Textpattern as-is. I just get really excited about new releases. Something to play around with (even if it won’t be that different!). Just cheesy that way I guess.
How about group six: Likes shiny new toys.
Liberal. Geek.
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