Re: Appreciating developers
David Welton <davidw@master.debian.org> writes:
> On Thu, Jan 14, 1999 at 01:35:03AM +0000, Ian Jackson wrote:
> > Anyone who doesn't know about O_EXCL (and the dozen or so other common
> > mistakes) should not be writing code until they've learned.
As Spencer Kimball pointed out recently (/.) many programmers in de
free software community are motivated not by grand designs or empty
niches in the ecology of free software products. They are motivated by
a strong desire to learn.
And as I'm sure Ian understands perfectly well you cannot learn to
code without actually doing it. The only real mistake that counts then
is the failure to learn.
> I think the point was in reference to negative comments regarding
> those who are less technically proficient. There is a difference
> between saying "it seems as if it would be best for you to study up on
> this area a bit more", and "you don't know jack shit about ...., and
> therefore must be a really lame person".
My point exactly. I imagine debian should foster stead of mock novice
hackers with more gusto than experience. We might even recruite
someone as productive as Linus, Spencer, Peter or RMS.
--
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Paul Stevens mailto:paul@nfg.nl
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