Alan Cox goes on sabbatical

Posted Aug 20, 2003 18:41 UTC (Wed) by proski (subscriber, #104) [Link]

I don't think Alan will work on GnuCash. The difference between working on the kernel and working on a user space program is the entry barrier. With the kernel, only people strong in C, who understand some software design principles will submit patches to the code. Others may submit patches to the documentation or spelling fixes, but they don't normally try to mess with the code.

With user space software, you get a lot of people who think that they can change the code, while in fact they are incompetent. They will suggest workarounds for an existing bug without even realizing that it's a bug. They with add more and more command line options to interactive programs because they are to lazy to change the configuration dialog. They will suggest hacks that break portability without even realizing it. They will put their name to comments and document their changes, rather than the changed code as a whole (e.g. /* changed by Max to fix search */). They will send patches against obsolete versions and tell you that they are too afraid to upgrade.

The only person I know who converted from kernel to userspace programming is Eric Raymond, the co-author of the famous How To Ask Questions The Smart Way. It's hard to manage a userspace project without constantly referring users to that document.

I don't know Alan in person, but I really doubt that he'll work on GnuCash.