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Open Source Requirements

 
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 Open Source Requirements 
Author Message
tekproxy
Distro Developer


Joined: 06 Apr 2006
Posts: 350
Location: Nederland, Texas
PostPosted: Wed Apr 11, 2007 10:44 am    Post subject: Open Source Requirements Reply with quote
Muad brought up a good point on this thread: http://forums.polserver.com/viewtopic.php?t=1508

So I decided to continue it here. Please feel free to contribute.

A lack of free time is actually a requirement to contributing to an open source project.

Another important factor is a lack of money. I believe a wise man once said:
Verily, I sayeth unto you, it is easier for your mother to install BeOS on an XBox running Windows Vista through VMWare than it is for a rich programmer to finish an open source project.

Some programmers have taken this literally and intentionally blow their money on fancy computer hardware, cars, clever t-shirts and expensive foreign fancy-pants ales. That's missing the point. The verse is actually referring to the Universal Constant of Programmer Alcohol Demand. For some reason, open source programmers tend to constantly demand alcohol. It's that simple. Even a simple Google image search of "Linus Torvalds" the famous father of GNU/Linux shows several pictures of him drinking (one of which is shirtless).

Programming then, simplified for this example, would look like this in pseudo-code:
Code:
while ( me.living )
  var amt_bought := 0;
  var amt_consumed := 0;

  if ( me.money <= (life.cost_of_living + (life.cost_of_beer - 1)) && (amt_consumed >= amt_bought) )
    amt_consumed := 0;
    Code();
  else
   if ( amt_consumed < amt_bought )
     amt_consumed := amt_consumed + ConsumeAlcohol(amt_bought);
   endif
   
    amt_bought := BuyAlcohol(me.money - life.cost_of_living);
    amt_consumed := amt_consumed + ConsumeAlcohol(amt_bought);

    if ( amt_consumed < me.alcohol_limit )
      Code();
    endif
  endif

  Sleep();
endwhile


So you see, the more money a programmer has, the more alcohol he/she will buy and the less code he/she will do. This example doesn't include checks for free time, and it doesn't factor other more subtle factors like the amount of sleep and other vitals of the programmer.


Someone else should test this for me, if you have too much free time, begin working on an open source project. I didn't have a job until I started really working on the distro and other projects. Once I got used to the new schedule of work and sleep, I started fitting more time in for distro work, and once I got started with that I started working 50-60 hour weeks. Honestly, I'm a little afraid to open UltraEdit. If I even sync the distro I may end up staying 30 minutes later than usual.

  
Author Message
Yukiko



Joined: 02 Feb 2006
Posts: 1094
Location: Southern Central USA
PostPosted: Thu Apr 12, 2007 3:38 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
Don't forget the other verse which so aptly applies:

Blessed are they that run in circles for they shall be called wheels.

I say that because sometimes when working on any programming project it seems like if you started out with free time and if you don't end up working more hours, you frequently get hung up on a bug that has you reviewing the same code over and over a number of times before you realize that you had an error in logic where you needed a '<=' rather than a '>='.

  
Author Message
OldnGrey



Joined: 04 Feb 2006
Posts: 523
PostPosted: Thu Apr 12, 2007 5:00 am    Post subject: Reply with quote
There is some wisdom in all this.
I recently lost my job and thought I'd have all the time in the world to get my shard tuned perfectly.
Until I saw Tekproxy's script I was unable to understand why I wasn't getting any more done than before.

Going around in circles like a wheel? Nah too complicated for me.

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