On 20/03/2010, at 08:12 , Tom M wrote: >> - We need students with proven competence in the area they want to >> contribute to > > That I disagree with. A coder should be proven competent by dint of > previous coding experience in something. I'd bet 99% of kernel and > compiler coders could jump in to Blender without difficulty for > instance. Most of our successful project participants did not have > previous coding experience in the area they wanted to contribute to.
No, I think Brecht is absolutely right. There is not a 'hierarchy of coding talent' as if it's a generic commodity, that starts with kernel programmers or whatever at the top. Different people have different areas of experience and ability. I most probably would certainly not want a compiler programmer working on anything that involves user interaction or workflow, if they aren't already quite experienced and familiar with Blender and how 3D artists work. The same thing goes for plenty of other areas, rendering for example demands specific knowledge and techniques that not a lot of coders in general are familiar with. Without a decent level of experience and awareness of the domain, people will make the same old rookie mistakes, and generally won't know how to actually make something useful in the context of 3D production. Again in the rendering example, I'd wager than even most specialist academics/researchers in the rendering field would need to learn a lot in order to make a useful contribution to Blender, and tools that are useful in practical production. Matt _______________________________________________ Bf-committers mailing list [email protected] http://lists.blender.org/mailman/listinfo/bf-committers
