keithleng Wrote: > Somebody took my reference to "enthusiastic amateurs" as an insult. It > wasn't intended as that.
No kidding - you could have fooled me and most of this forum. keithleng Wrote: > I disagree with the people who claim that amateurs are the cream of the > crop and are likely to produce better software than professionals. Nobody said that amateurs were the cream of the crop - you should re-read the post that you have misquoted. The post actually suggested that many open source supporters and developers are professional programmers who maintain and contribute to open source projects as a result of their passion for their chosen profession. Programmers who are passionate about what they do are a rare breed and usually very good - hence the "cream of the crop". Granted enthusiastic amateurs are involved with open source as well - and a good thing too - but to suggest that even amatuers are not up to snuff is offensive and indicative of someone who hasn't a clue about what they speak. An amateur or even professional coder could submit a poorly written patch to an open source project, but due to the review process employed by most of these projects the code will be improved before it is checked in, ensuring that on the whole the quality of submissions is maintained. And over my almost 20 years in software development I've seen vast quantities of poorly written software supposedly produced by "professionals". To be honest, "professional programmer" is an utterly meaningless description as it simply describes someone who is paid to programme. Your belief that such people will automatically produce good quality software is misguided beyond belief as paid programmers are just as capable of turning out garbage as any open source volunteer. Anyway, this thread has seriously veered OT - nice hijack keithleng, if you have a problem with your SB please open a new thread and people will do their best to help you, provided you don't insult them any more. :) -- Milhouse _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/discuss
