[mythtv] DVB Channel Changes

Tako Schotanus quintesse at palacio-cristal.com
Thu Apr 15 19:03:39 EDT 2004


Leandro Dardini wrote:

>  
>
>>Ben Bucksch wrote:
>>
>>    
>>
>>>Tako Schotanus wrote:
>>>
>>>      
>>>
>>>>Ramon could have made mplayer optional, that would have been
>>>>usefull for people that don't need or want the functionality it offers,
>>>>but why?
>>>>
>>>>        
>>>>
>>>Exactly because it "would have been usefull for people that don't need
>>>or want the functionality" that mplayer offers (finetuning), but who
>>>need the rest of MythChannels' functionality (general channel setup,
>>>import etc.).
>>>
>>>Having code that knowingly breaks, even for a significant number of
>>>people, just leads to crap quality, step by step.
>>>
>>>      
>>>
>>I understand more or less what you're trying to say, but you have to
>>admit that there's a lot of code in MythTV that is written because the
>>people writing it wanted it that way and don't give too much if it's
>>always useful for others. If I only look at the functionality, not the
>>code quality of Ramon's work I could say that he wrote it just for
>>himself and people in his situation.
>>    
>>
>
>I have to disagree with you about the "wrote it __just__ for himself". Yes,
>he wrote it for a need he has, but the same need is common to all european
>mythtv users.
>
I did say "_and_ people in his situation". meaning exactly what you're 
saying here: he wrote it for himself but it was useful to lots of others.

>
>>For me it wouldn't be strange to say: ok, so _I_ make this which is
>>useful to me and 20% of other myth users and if somebody sees a way to
>>make it useful for 60% of the users, ok fine, let _them_ do the other
>>40%. Requiring that _he_ makes it useful for the other 40% just doesn't
>>seem fair.
>>    
>>
>
>I must disagree with you again. If I send a piece of code usefull only to
>20% of users and simply with an additional "day" of work I can make it
>usefull to 60% of users while it costs "10 days" of work to an other people
>to make it usefull to 60% simply because I know the code and others have to
>learn it, the project mantainer has the moral obligation to ask the initial
>developer to complete the task.
>
He can  ask but if the original developer doesn't feel like doing the 
rest of the work (because we weren't talking about "1 day" stuff here, 
we were talking about a project that cost somebody some serious time) it 
would be silly to reject his work because of that because it would 
_still_ be useful to the other 20%  of the users. It could also be that 
the original author might still be willing to put in that extra amount 
of work but would like the work he did so far to be available _now_. 
(Enthousiastic responses from users can be a great stimulus to do some 
more work even if it doesn't benefit you personally anymore).

-Tako



More information about the mythtv-dev mailing list