On Sep 23, 2005, at 07:00, Jon maddog Hall wrote:
I would point out why software development under Open Source is better
than
closed source techniques:
o peer review
o rapid turnaround of development
o large numbers of field testers
Just to amplify where maddog's going - the future of writing software
is writing as little software as possible.
To use perl as an example, just about every algorithm you're likely to
need to implement has been done already, is on CPAN, has been
refactored three times to the degree you didn't realize you needed it
to be (but is obviously right on examination) and has been debugged by
dozens of other people.
When you do hit a bug, there are usually a dozen people on a mailing
list, and one of them has either hit it, fixed it, or can point you in
the right direction. If you do fix it, you throw it back over the
fence and someone else takes care of it from there. In turn, perhaps
you take on the responsibility for one very small bit of code to return
the favor. Many hands make light work.
To write a tool, these days I go to CPAN, find the parts I need, and
string them together. Maybe this is the era of Software Construction -
I sure don't expect the guy framing my garage to show up the first day
with a chainsaw and a Wood Mizer.
From a business perspective, this gets you software done faster and
more correctly for less money. Call it productivity if you like, but I
dare someone writing everything from scratch to bid against me using
CPAN.
Now, Sun and Microsoft would both like to offer you that component
library in their favorite flavors, but they necessarily have a limited
scope of interest and their library grows more slowly than ours does.
The best part is it's not a zero-sum game. Everybody gets a lift from
this model.
(sent from the Korean Airlines departure lounge)
Great, I'll be sitting at InfoeXchange while maddog eats Pho with a
brigade of OSS fanatics. Good work if you can get it. :)
-Bill
-----
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