[Rule-list] About 3rd party developers

[Marco Fioretti]

On Wed, Oct 23, 2002 08:37:33 at 08:37:33AM -0700, Colin Mattoon wrote:
> That's why I suggested the Rule-Project switch it's purpose from
> making Red Hat installable on lower tier hardware to making another
> existing distribution easier to install and configure and improving
> its RPM support. Debian was suggested, although I personally believe
> Slackware has even greater potential in this area. Both remain easily
> installable on low tier hardware. 
> 
See my other post about "lower tier hardware" being a moving target,
and the space for other activities in RULE, provided that someone does
carry them on

> 
> Third party developers ARE a problem, and the reason RPM compatibility
> remains important even if Red Hat itself becomes unuseable. There are

I agree, but (I know, I'm repeating myself...) I very often see the
problem in the original program, before it becomes a .deb, .rpm,
.tgz...: this is one of the reason why I think that I and many others
can stick to RH, while who feels attracted also by other distros is
encouraged to study them in the RULE spirit, and report what he finds
so we can learn and port to RH.

Almost real world example: programmer X finds a very simple and robust
way to configure a firewall, and writes a program for it: only problem,
since GTK/QT are k00l and look good on a resume he does the (IMNSHO)
very idiot thing to impose on the end user a bunch of stuff for
something  done once per installation, and could happen just as well
with a curses interface.

Other real world example: programmer Y writes a k00l editor which 
finally supports non alphabetic languages, and doesn't bother to make
it modular, he just says that everybody using that editor must have on
board every alphabet since the Tower of Babel (you know, just in case
the Dalai Lama (**) appears on your side and asks to write his blog)

When these thing happen, no distro can help. The really RULE-ish thing
to do, the one that I hope to learn eventually from this project, and
to make publicly available, is to correct the Makefile and patch the
source code (or, much better, to convince the developer to do it
himself): after that, which package format one uses is a secondary
issue.
	Ciao,
		Marco Fioretti

(**) with all respect for the Dalai Lama and the people of Nepal, of
course!


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