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Ask HN: Why don't apps have a “show author mode” that shows who wrote a feature?
For example, if you activate this mode in a word processor and then export a document to pdf, then you will see all the people who contributed to the export to pdf code.
- ftxbro 3y agoFor one thing it would be a 'cross cutting concern' or 'dependency injection' which is the kind of thing programmers hate adding to their apps. Also how exactly would you envision 'you will see all the people' to work? Where will the list be shown, for how long?
- amichail 3y agoDon't programmers want to get credit for the features they implement? The list of people could be ranked by who contributed most to that particular feature.
- ftxbro 3y ago> if you activate this mode in a word processor and then export a document to pdf, then you will see all the people where would you show it, a popup window?
- uberman 3y agoSee open source git repo...
- amichail 3y agoBut this wouldn't work with commercial apps. Also, it wouldn't be highly visible in the app GUI.
- thesuperbigfrog 3y ago>> this wouldn't work with commercial apps. Also, it wouldn't be highly visible in the app GUI. They are called "Easter eggs" and they have been a secret way for programmers to take credit for ages: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_egg_(media) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_egg_(media)
- neximo64 3y agoIt doesn't seem to solve a customer want. Why would someone who made a word doc want that? Atm you can write it in the word doc and you would have full control of the list that way too. Additionally, there are far better tools available such as tracking changes/redlining that show specific changes that each author has done.
- amichail 3y agoI'm not talking about who made changes to a document. I'm talking about the programmers who wrote the source code for the word processor and in particular the export to pdf feature.
- neximo64 3y agoYes, the same point applies: Why would a customer who uses the word processor want that? To play it another way, imagine we did have a word processor that did this and, A) Word processor A prioritised features customers wanted and the print authors who made the word processor feature didn't make the cut. B) Word processor B prioritised the author of word processor feature and customers/users preferred the other word processor, so this one stop being maintained. As a result, questions like this one exist where we ask why doesn't a word processor have this feature It is quite brutal but survivorship bias could explain it too. I will also point out that the above is one of the main thing YCombinator tries to teach when making stuff, in a way the irrelevancy of the author in their art and the priority of the customer.
- amichail 3y agoWouldn't this feature result in happier and more motivated programmers though? And maybe you would end up with a better word processor overall?
- neximo64 3y agoBut then who would use it if it didn't prioritise customer features? Maybe think about it from a movie's point of view. Would you watch a movie that you didn't find entertaining, because it tried to fulfil the producers/directors/actors needs instead of the audience's needs? The argument could be made that an unhappy actor/producer, etc would make a worse movie, but the entertainment factor is the most important in whether its successful. Very similar with software and its users. You could also argue that customers praising the software can make the author happy too!