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Having spent more time working on open source tools and projects recently: although yes, many codebases have limitations, there's often a rewarding escalation p
by jka 6y ago
Having spent more time working on open source tools and projects recently: although yes, many codebases have limitations, there's often a rewarding escalation path towards improving the situation.
* If you're unsure about the project and/or community's stance on a feature/problem, sometimes their discussion forums can help
* If you have a precise problem or feature in mind -- which it sounds like you do in this case! -- finding/creating a bug for it and/or just commenting with your interest can help projects prioritize it
* If you're really motivated and have the time, digging into the source and attempting an implementation; often educational even if not immediately resolvable
* If you run into implementation issues (like the kernel-level concern), then GOTO 1 with the same escalation path for the design issue / dependency it relates to
It can take a lot of time and effort (especially if it ends up diverging into multiple separate issues at step four), but honestly when any of this process results in an open source project fixing a bug or introducing a new feature as a result, the sense of reward is well worth it.
All that said: I don't know if https://tracker.freecadweb.org/view.php?id=597 https://tracker.freecadweb.org/view.php?id=597 is the same issue, but it sounds similar and might appreciate your input :)
- jka 6y agoSelf-reply: perhaps this wasn't the most useful comment; and on reading further there is a proposed project[1] related to trying to resolve the naming issue. Hopefully the principles in the comment are reasonable, but it's definitely a tricky problem for FreeCAD to solve. [1] - https://wiki.freecadweb.org/Topological_Naming_Project https://wiki.freecadweb.org/Topological_Naming_Project
- mihaaly 6y agoI believe when one wants to use a software the incentives are not to spend time on testing or improving it but to save time on the original task at hand. Getting help from the software and not helping the software, not participating in its interest group society. For the purpose of the software - helping and carrying out tasks - lengthy digging in discussions for essential information is counter efficient.
- jka 6y agoYep - it's completely fine to simply use software and not expect or contribute anything more to it; and in that sense it's good to have multiple options for any given task. But given the ability and opportunity to provide feedback directly to a software project, they'll generally appreciate it and it'll lead to better outcomes for everyone, even if it takes a bit more time up-front.
- rkangel 6y agoI've concluded that for me the price that I should pay for good open source software is good bug reports. If I'm not contributing at the very least help the contributors make their project better. This can sometimes take a little time to get a reasonably minimal set of steps to repeat and appropriate screenshots. Admittedly this is easier as I'm a software engineer so I have decent intuition as to what is needed so they don't have to come back to me.
- fireattack 6y agoI agree with you in general, but in this very case, since there is already a wiki page for it, I guess the issue is well-known.