On Wed, Feb 16, 2011 at 12:33 PM, Philip Brown <[email protected]> wrote: > On Wed, Feb 16, 2011 at 7:40 AM, Peter FELECAN <[email protected]> wrote: >> Jonathan Craig <[email protected]> writes: >> >>> [...] I personally don't look at policies as being written in stone >>> and therefore require exhaustive research to fully specify them the >>> first time. Policy simply directs our actions in achieving a given >>> outcome.[...] >> >> Agreeing on this would shorten the length of our discussion and keep its >> focus. > > > Nice theory. Unfortunately, in practice, what this usually results in, > is a maintainer submitting a package, > which then bumps up against an ambiguity in the policy, and then they > start screaming, "There's no policy against that, let my package > through NOW!!!! Stop wasting my time discussing this!!" > > So, if people were more polite and patient, this would be a decent way > to go. But given how people actually act, better to get the discussion > fully done now. > > I have another email coming up, addressing a question than Jonathan > had, in a minute.
Nice theory. Unfortunately, in practice, what this usually results in, is no policies get written at all. I'm not arguing that policy doesn't need careful consideration, just that it has to be tinged with a sense of timeliness. Nobody can game out all of the possible scenario's surrounding a policy, so the policy needs flexibility. This is achieved by leaving policy at the upper layer of architecture/design and/or by allowing the policy to be shaped through experience as the policies of governments are shaped by courts. One must capture the spirit of the law so that one can can flex the letter of the law to see that the spirit is upheld. If policies become to cumbersome, and then are administered by strict constructionist, then they are doomed to failure over time. Maintainers become impatient when policies are poorly crafted and have an arbitrary feeling. If they understand the intent then they can apply their skills and art to achieving the intent and in the process further our craft. So it was written in the "Philosophy of Policy" by Jon Craig ;) _______________________________________________ maintainers mailing list [email protected] https://lists.opencsw.org/mailman/listinfo/maintainers .:: This mailing list's archive is public. ::.
