Re: Is GridLY the future?

[Janek Warchoł]

Hi,

2015-04-28 7:49 GMT+02:00 Werner LEMBERG <address@hidden>:
>
>>> Actually I'm quite convinced that this situation has a notable
>>> impact on the overall development activiyt.
>
> I don't think so.  Have you ever observed the development of Emacs or
> the Linux kernel, for example by reading the `emacs-devel' list?  The
> rules there are *much* stricter than lilypond's one w.r.t. coding
> style, overall structure, etc., and in spite of this there is *a lot*
> of development going on.

IMO it doesn't make sense to compare LilyPond to Linux kernel, because:
- people interested in contributing to kernel are experienced software
developers.  It makes sense to demand good coding style etc. from
seasoned pros, and tell them to go away if they cannot manage to write
well-structured code by themselves.  OTOH, LilyPond contributors are
often amateurs who need significant tutoring before their code is
well-written (that's not a problem at all, as they are all willing to
learn - but the community must not scare them away).
- there are so many people interested in working on kernel that even
if Linus offends 3/4 of them he'll still have enough left.
- actually a lot of kernel devs are employed by big companies to work
on kernel.  It's their job to cope with kernel community, however it
looks like.

>> I agree with Urs - in my opinion LilyPond is not developer-friendly
>> enough.  Actually it's one of the reasons why I was away for so long
>> - the friction in the community caused me to loose some motivation
>> to work on LilyPond.  And I'm not the only one.
>
> Indeed, this is unfortunate.  Ideas to improve the overall situation
> are highly welcome – IIRC, Graham made a lot of good suggestions how
> to lead contributors.  However, what we need is more developers that
> are *really* interested in developing lilypond!  People who are scared
> away by a few harsh but factual comments don't count IMHO.  Of course,
> ad-hominem attacks are definitely a no-go, but everything else has to
> be seen in the light of improving lilypond.

The behaviour that discouraged me from working on LilyPond for some
time was not obviously unacceptable (i.e. it wasn't some ad hominem
attack, nor anything else unanimously condemned by others).  Rather,
it was the general attitude of some people who sometimes seem to
oppose changes only because they personally don't like them (or think
they're not important), without even suggesting reasonable
alternatives.

best,
Janek