Roberto C. Sanchez wrote:
On Thu, Nov 30, 2006 at 02:30:54PM -0600, Ron Johnson wrote:The *real* killer "app" was Linus' decision to develop Linux openly.I took a software engineering class where the professor maintained that the only notable contribution that Linus Torvalds has made to the programming/compsci/compeng world was figuring out how to make it possible for hundreds of people to work on the same code base without stepping all over each other.
He was wrong. People step all over each other in the kernel and just about every application that requires more than a few developers all the time in the open-source world. [Hint, see recent ABI screw-ups in mysql-server and mysql-client... not caused by Debian, happened upstream. Retarded bugs really, too.]
CVS/Subversion/[insert tool du jour here] are what REALLY allow collaborative development. That and communication, both public and private, between the devs.
The fact that "stepping on" happens every day, is why new versions aren't released the second the source hits the tree.
Nate