[Asterisk-Dev] [Rant] [long] - code style and quality

[Andrew Kohlsmith]

On May 7, 2005 08:24 am, Steve Underwood wrote:
> Whine about a real problem - the bug tracker has become useless. I find
> the original post truly obnoxious. It is postings like that which often
> want to make me give up writing free software. I don't know the guy's
> background, be he writes like someone who is somewhere in the middle of
> the C 101 course, and wants to tell the world what he found. People who

Yes I agree it comes across as a very green post, and you have every right to 
complain; I was just trying to understand the "well the fix it, but there's 
nowhere to put the patches" part of it.

> have actually produced something complex and useful seldom write that
> way. They know real code gets messy as time goes on. Cleaning it up is

This too is very correct; without a LOT of work code does age and it can age 
very quickly without vigilance.  Like documentation, tidy code is not high on 
the priority list for most free software developers.  

> not only time consuming, it risks breaking proven code in subtle ways. I
> often go through major cleanups in my own code, and accept the suffering
> it causes re-debugging things that used to work. That is me causing me
> problems. That's my right. People have no right to even suggest others
> should tolerate similar suffering.

Agreed again; I have been through similar "but I didn't change the logic!" bug 
hunts, usually with the help of an ICE (I'm an embedded guy).  I diagree with 
your assertion that he's got no right to suggest improvements.  People can 
and should suggest whatever they want.  It's a free and open development 
model.  They also have the right to submit patches and a case for the 
acceptance of those patches.  The greenhorns get experience through exposure 
to "real code" and "the real world" -- denying them that is not good.

> We don't need beginners lessons in coding. Some of us finished those 30
> odd years ago. We need good ideas, and good (that means definitely
> reliable, and hopfully pretty and easy to read) code from as many people
> as possible.

Ideas are cheap, but sometimes those with the idea and those with the skills 
to implement the idea are not the same person; open and free discussion is 
important.

> Good people don't drink alcohol.

Guess I'm not a good person then...  Oh well.

-A.