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<DIV><FONT face=Arial><FONT size=2>¢<SPAN class=200122101-13102005> <-----how
did you do that? I can't find that key anywhere. I know it used to
be on the typewriter</SPAN></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE dir=ltr style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV class=OutlookMessageHeader lang=en-us dir=ltr align=left><FONT
face=Tahoma size=2>-----Original Message-----<BR><B>From:</B> Morris Dovey
[mailto:mrdovey@iedu.com] <BR><B>Sent:</B> Wednesday, October 12, 2005 7:56
PM<BR><B>To:</B> Central Iowa Linux Users Group<BR><B>Subject:</B> Re:
[Cialug] Learning the 'C' language<BR><BR></FONT></DIV>
<DIV>Josh More wrote:</DIV><FONT size=2></FONT>
<DIV><BR>| You bring up some very fine points. And I fully agree with
most of<BR>| them. <BR>| <BR>| My main concern is that there are a lot of
similar projects out<BR>| there because the original project was poorly
designed and/or<BR>| commented. I would like to see people put more time
into making<BR>| projects more open. 'Open' in this case means
'accepting of<BR>| contributions from others'. I am very concerned about
the "You<BR>| must know _____" meritocracy that I see in the open source<BR>|
communities. I worry that if we keep up this semi-hostile attitude<BR>|
that the open source movement will start losing momentum. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>You're absolutely correct about the junkpile of poorly
designed and poorly commented/documented projects - and the problem isn't
unique to the open source community. I actually made a career of traveling
around the country cleaning up other peoples' hardware/software/documentation
messes.</FONT><BR></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>The open source movement won't lose much momentum until
people begin taking it for granted - and certainly not so long as there are
competent and inventive people who see OS as the vehicle by which they can
make the world a better place. We can do a lot to prolong its life by finding
some way for those people to be spotlighted for doing just that. (my 2<FONT
face=Arial>¢</FONT>)</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>Hostility usually indicates that there's more than one way
of seeing something and that there's more than one person who has strong
feelings. The usual right answer is to call in a mutually respected referee to
make a call.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV>| With regards to your point of discouraging it, I wholeheartedly<BR>|
agree. <BR>| I was not trying to discourage the desire to learn C. I
just think<BR>| that Nate has skills that he could use that would impact
projects<BR>| much more strongly than just adding another programmer.</DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>Aha! Everyone else knows more about Nate and "the project"
than do I - my bad for not making more effort to get to the meetings and get
to know people better. Still - I would guess that he would derive substantial
benefit from "knowing how things work" and having some personal experience
with "knowing what it takes". There's also the aspect of project leadership
where it pays to know when someone is spouting BS and when they're
not...</FONT><BR></DIV>
<DIV>| To my mind, it's like a CEO learning about cows so that he can go<BR>|
flip burgers at McDonald's. (Exaggerated for effect.)<BR></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2>Well, if it's the McDonald's CEO (or a store owner),
then it just might be a good mooove. :-)</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=2></FONT><FONT size=2></FONT><FONT size=2></FONT><BR>Morris
Dovey</DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></BODY></HTML>