3 ms·

The vast majority of the Apache OpenOffice commits are done by two people who solely focus on manually fiddling with the source code formatting and fixing typos

by ndiddy 2y ago

The vast majority of the Apache OpenOffice commits are done by two people who solely focus on manually fiddling with the source code formatting and fixing typos in the comments. I'm not sure why this is (maybe they think it's a fun hobby?) but I wouldn't consider it to be the same as if the project was regularly getting bugfixes and new features.

mindcrime 2y ago
No doubt there have been a lot of commits of that nature. But even a cursory skimming of the commit history shows plenty of "meatier" changes over the last couple of months. And even if one person is committing nothing but typo fixes, that's still a binary difference versus being "orphaned" as far as I'm concerned. Sure, it would be nice if the project had more active contributors, but I'd rather celebrate the folks who are contributing rather than denigrate them and the project. But that's just me.
- mksaunders2 2y ago
  According to the Apache Security Team, Apache OpenOffice has: > Three issues in OpenOffice over 365 days old and a number of other open issues not fully triaged. Do you think it is responsible to keep serving users vulnerable software and misleading them that it's being updated with pointless code commits? It's vulnerable, there's been no major update since 2014, and now unfixed issues over a year old. Those changing typos in the source code instead of actually fixing the issues should really be ashamed.
Cyphase 2y ago
Maybe it's a covert side-channel communication method. Keep an eye out for them switching between tabs and spaces, that could signal impending nuclear war.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
jamesfinlayson 2y ago
Sad. I've seen a couple of projects like this - maintainer who isn't a strong programmer or has no vision/direction for the project so they just change NULL to nullptr etc.

3 ms·

The vast majority of the Apache OpenOffice commits are done by two people who solely focus on manually fiddling with the source code formatting and fixing typos

by ndiddy 2y ago

mindcrime 2y ago
No doubt there have been a lot of commits of that nature. But even a cursory skimming of the commit history shows plenty of "meatier" changes over the last couple of months. And even if one person is committing nothing but typo fixes, that's still a binary difference versus being "orphaned" as far as I'm concerned. Sure, it would be nice if the project had more active contributors, but I'd rather celebrate the folks who are contributing rather than denigrate them and the project. But that's just me.
- mksaunders2 2y ago
  According to the Apache Security Team, Apache OpenOffice has: > Three issues in OpenOffice over 365 days old and a number of other open issues not fully triaged. Do you think it is responsible to keep serving users vulnerable software and misleading them that it's being updated with pointless code commits? It's vulnerable, there's been no major update since 2014, and now unfixed issues over a year old. Those changing typos in the source code instead of actually fixing the issues should really be ashamed.
Cyphase 2y ago
Maybe it's a covert side-channel communication method. Keep an eye out for them switching between tabs and spaces, that could signal impending nuclear war.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
jamesfinlayson 2y ago
Sad. I've seen a couple of projects like this - maintainer who isn't a strong programmer or has no vision/direction for the project so they just change NULL to nullptr etc.