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While this is true, please don't let it overshadow the tremendous work (possibly even the bulk of it by now) by subsequent maintainers. In the ffmpeg case that

by bfz 4y ago

While this is true, please don't let it overshadow the tremendous work (possibly even the bulk of it by now) by subsequent maintainers. In the ffmpeg case that involved fighting a well-resourced hostile fork over a period of years, in the Qemu case I believe it means at least 10 years of additional substantial feature development. I wonder what Bellard's overall hit rate across all those projects looks like in terms of staying around for chores after delivering the initial act of wizardry

l33t2328 4y ago
What is a “hostile fork?”
- sanxiyn 4y ago
  Probably talking about libav. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libav https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libav has some pointers.
- feikname 4y ago
  One that have the same binary name as yours for compability reasons, but then proceeds to be not so compatible with slight command line options. Thus, made a whole lot of confusion because people didn't expect that depending on what distro they were using they could be using similar but incompatible software with the same executable filename.
svnt 4y ago
While I agree we shouldn’t lionize individuals, I think we should also acknowledge there is great value in being the one to start something.
anderspitman 4y ago
I agree with you, but I also think it's pretty impressive that Fabrice has started multiple projects that many other people have devoted their entire careers to expanding/maintaining. Almost seems to challenge the common assertion that execution is more important than a great idea.
- hoistbypetard 4y ago
  These weren't un-executed ideas, though. I think it lines up very well with my general sense that the best way to get to a really good implementation of something is to publish one that's lacking in some way that annoys people. Then you have an idea plus something people can contribute work to improve.
  - anderspitman 4y ago
    > These weren't un-executed ideas, though I think you're straw-manning what I said a bit.
    - hoistbypetard 4y ago
      Not intentionally… I am arguing that “Almost seems to challenge the common assertion that execution is more important than a great idea” is not the case. Because these ideas were executed.

by bfz 4y ago

l33t2328 4y ago

What is a “hostile fork?”

sanxiyn 4y ago
Probably talking about libav. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libav https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libav has some pointers.
feikname 4y ago
One that have the same binary name as yours for compability reasons, but then proceeds to be not so compatible with slight command line options. Thus, made a whole lot of confusion because people didn't expect that depending on what distro they were using they could be using similar but incompatible software with the same executable filename.

svnt 4y ago

While I agree we shouldn’t lionize individuals, I think we should also acknowledge there is great value in being the one to start something.

anderspitman 4y ago

I agree with you, but I also think it's pretty impressive that Fabrice has started multiple projects that many other people have devoted their entire careers to expanding/maintaining. Almost seems to challenge the common assertion that execution is more important than a great idea.

hoistbypetard 4y ago
These weren't un-executed ideas, though. I think it lines up very well with my general sense that the best way to get to a really good implementation of something is to publish one that's lacking in some way that annoys people. Then you have an idea plus something people can contribute work to improve.
- anderspitman 4y ago
  > These weren't un-executed ideas, though I think you're straw-manning what I said a bit.
  - hoistbypetard 4y ago
    Not intentionally… I am arguing that “Almost seems to challenge the common assertion that execution is more important than a great idea” is not the case. Because these ideas were executed.