On Mar 14, 2006, at 7:25 PM, OpenMacNews wrote:
(though, i *do* wish that BB would seriously look at & supercede
some of
the "nice to have" features in TextMate ...)
I can't remember where I said this ... it was probably the
Yojimbo list ...
I don't know how BareBones handles development, but I know
that in all of the development projects that I've worked on,
the way to get a feature developed is to manage to get one
of the programmers _really_ interested in it.
You need to sell it to them -- and I don't mean 'you should
be just like this other program'. You should tell them how
much it will change the world -- not just the direct benefits,
but all of those side benefits, like the amount of time that
you'll have to spend ending hunger and/or otherwise improving
the world, all because you've managed to save all of those
many seconds in code folding, or the software that you're
writing directly affects it.
(hell, I work on software that will allow scientists to get
pre-warning about solar irradiation, which could allow
companies to shutter their satellites, to try to prevent
something like that 1989 storm from taking out communications,
which could keep them from getting to watch their favorite
TV shows -- I mean, if I could write better code, it might
be the difference in their getting to watch CSI:Cincinnati
during the next solar max, or a bunch of static ... or even
their whole power grid spontaneously combusting.)*
Anyway, from a programmer's point of view -- big changes
are bad. Changing the whole engine is a massive undertaking,
and there's a whole lot of risk. That's not a good stress,
when you're on the critical path for the whole release. You
have to _want_ the change -- you have to be inspired -- how
to do it better than everyone else (faster, fewer lines
of code, more seamless, better UI) or at least something
that's revolutionary.
No one wants to just be throwing in a feature that you're
going to have to maintain for future versions, that might
cause needless interactions with other components and
require a full rewrite of the software, just because some
other software package can do it.**
As I've said before -- I don't know how Bare Bones operates
-- but as much as losing 100 sales might affect the company
as a whole, it doesn't affect the individual programmers.
(hell, you get a site license for that, it might get you
a month of a programmer's time under full cost accounting)
Unless they're getting a bounty for a specific desired
feature, they're not seeing any of that money.
So, you either have to manage to convince them that they
really want to implement your given desired feature, or
bribe them. I think many, many years ago (some time between
1995 and 2002), Rich or one of the others commented on
their favorite type of beer, and suggested sending them
a case or two. (maybe I'm just confusing it w/ this
message a Terje: )
http://www.listsearch.com/bbedittalk.lasso?id=2236
and there's a vague comment later:
http://www.listsearch.com/bbedittalk.lasso?id=5860
...
okay, just because I'm procrastinating ... I can't find
the original message, but I have confirmation that something
once existed (but it goes back to before the mailing list's
archives)
----
Date: Wed, 4 Nov 1998 16:35:45 -0500
From: Jim Correia <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Evil OS's BBedit twin??
On 11/4/98 at 12:55 PM, Scott Crumpton <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>
> > Example: In HomeSite if you right click on a tag, it gives you a
> > contextual menu of attributes to chose from. This applies to ANY
> > html tag that has attributes.
>
> Wow, great idea!
It is a useful feature. It might be even more so if it worked with tags
too instead of just attributes.
You see - you guys asked for scripting in the formatter tool and I
suggested beer be shipped to my office. I did't get any :-). Now your
asking for (improvements) on home site features. I wonder if I'll get
any beer this time? ;-)
[... trimmed ...]
--
Jim Correia Bare Bones Software, Inc.
[EMAIL PROTECTED] <http://web.barebones.com>
-----
(sorry, I can't find my mailing list archives from before 11 Aug 1998,
to find the original beer request)
-----
Joe Hourcle
*Okay, the odds of my code actually having that sort of an
effect is rather minimal, but it's not completely impossible.
**Yes, I'm still procrastinating from doing my homework.
--
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