The first KDE 4.3.0 release candidate [LWN.net]

The first KDE 4.3.0 release candidate

Posted Jul 2, 2009 14:23 UTC (Thu) by khim (subscriber, #9252) [Link]

This is a bug in *all software developers*. :)

It's not a bug, it's a feature. If you'll take a look on rare software projects who are trying to fix bugs before starting to add new features (like Emacs) you'll see that they are invariably in bad shape (Ok, some are in VERY bad shape) - and they have tons of unofficial patches to add this or that feature anyway. Why is that? Features attract users, bugs detract them - and projects without users either die or become zombie (like Hurd). That's why KDE developers switched almost entirely to "bugfix mode" when reaction to KDE 4.0 showed that people are hurt enough to consider switching to GNOME, XFCE and other projects "en masse". When real danger passed (how many guys are still consider dropping KDE today?) they returned back to normal modus of operandi: adding features and leisurely fixing bugs. And this is good decision IMO.

Introduction of new features should not sacrifice old functionality for the sake of developers' whims.

How astute! Sure, new features should attract new user and not hurt old users too much. KDE 4.3 looks fine to me: new ideas are interesting and there are not enough bugs to force exodus of old users. Please answer honestly: when (not if, but when!) you distribution will drop KDE 3.5 support what'll you do - switch to KDE 4.x (screaming and kicking) or to GNOME/XFCE/etc? Answer "I'll stick with KDE 3.5" is not an option in a long run, you know :-)

The first KDE 4.3.0 release candidate

Posted Jul 2, 2009 14:55 UTC (Thu) by boudewijn (subscriber, #14185) [Link]

You are so right...

You know, I get so sick of people who complain that there are new features in a release while
their pet bugs aren't solved to their personal satisfaction. As a volunteer free software developer
I feel those armchair managers don't understand at all the way a volunteer works. For me, it's
like this:

* Sunday afternoon: I fix a bug
* Monday: get pinged on irc by a polite user. He asks whether it's normal that krita crashes on
something. I ask him for a stacktrace, get it, fix the bug. Feel like yay!
* Tuesday, I spend some time refactoring something so the next gsoc student has a nice place
to start from. Plus, it's really good for code quality. Add a unit test, too.
* next day, I see a bug has been added. It's a busy day at work, but it's an easy bug, so on the
train home, I fix the bug. When I get home, someone else has added twelve wish list items to
bugzilla. I read them, mentally compare them with the TODO list, but then it's 20:30, time for
dinner, so I eat and forget about them.

Rinse, repeat until Saturday. On Saturday I get up at 8 so I have the morning for Krita. I feel like
giving myself a little present, so I start on a nice, little feature. Should be doable in a day.
Something for myself, because after all these years doing features in response to wishes from
users, I still haven't got the app I want for myself.

Sunday night, I commit the feature, together with notes on two dozen improvements that really
are junior jobs.

Then, after a few months, we release. Guess what's going to be noticed in the release
announcement: that little feature. The guy with the twelve wishes, wishes me a horrible death
for having prioritized my own little wish. Another guy blasts me for not having solved a bug that
was already around in 2001 -- well, it's a bug, but not one that I can solve since I don't have a
color printer of any description so I never print from Krita.

That's life for a volunteer developer, and in the KDE world, we're nearly all in that situation. We
would be way more full of radiant love for the world and kindness to cute animals if people
allowed us once in a while to implement something for ourselves.

(And people should stop getting so defensive when asked "can you please help out
implementing your wonderful suggestion -- since you know what you need and have the
hardware". Not knowing C++ is no problem: if I could learn it, anyone can learn it. Mine is a
very average ability.)

The first KDE 4.3.0 release candidate

Posted Jul 2, 2009 16:02 UTC (Thu) by vblum (guest, #1151) [Link]

emacs dropped ctrl-x x in its newer versions, it seems - what a shame ! apparently I was the only user, for the last 15 years! So not even emacs is as holy as it used to be.

(NB - this post is intended as humorous, no more - yes, I use ctrl-x x and it's gone in some incarnations, but I did literally NO work to investigate why that might be! Could be completely trivial!)

The first KDE 4.3.0 release candidate

Posted Jul 2, 2009 19:46 UTC (Thu) by nix (subscriber, #2304) [Link]

Well it's one line to put it back :) I suspect most people use C-u C-SPC
more than C-x C-x...