6 ms·

Sounds like he's trying to report bugs in projects that are either dead,half-dead or just the work of one guy as a side project. Before you start using an OS p

by jiggy2011 14y ago

Sounds like he's trying to report bugs in projects that are either dead,half-dead or just the work of one guy as a side project. Before you start using an OS project for anything serious, take a look at their forums, bug databases and repos. Is there active discussion from more than 2 or 3 people? Are there regular commits? How are they handling bugs? I've considered open sourcing code that I have written in the past, mainly stuff I built for one project where it serves the purposes of that project fine. In such a case handling bug reports from users trying to do different stuff with it would realistically just be a low priority. jwz rants always make me feel that the author is somehow bitter about the world not revolving around his needs.

smackfu 14y ago
The problem is that ImageMagick was clearly the image handling software of choice for years and years. So you rationally build a solution on it, then you find a bug (often a regression caused by an upgrade), and then there is no support for it. That sucks, and changing to another project that happens to be well-supported this week doesn't really fix the core gripe.
- npsimons 14y ago
  I was about to say something similar; last I checked, ImageMagick was far from dead or "just one guy". As I was reading TFA, I was thinking "Okay, two projects I haven't heard of, might be one offs" but then his retelling of his experience with ImageMagick made me sit up and take notice. If it's really this bad, it might be time for someone else to take it over.
  - plorkyeran 14y ago
    ImageMagick has been just one guy ever since the GraphicsMagick fork in 2002.
    - npsimons 14y ago
      Ah, yes, seeing that now. I get them mixed up sometimes.
    - sciurus 14y ago
      And FWIW, GraphicsMagick has an active bug tracker. http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?atid=537937&group_id=73485&func=browse http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?atid=537937&group_id=734...
- up_and_up 14y ago
  Imagemagick is alive and well. You just need to know where to look. Post something at http://www.imagemagick.org/discourse-server/ http://www.imagemagick.org/discourse-server/ and you'll see a response within a few hours.
ominous_prime 14y ago
In his defense though, ImageMagick has been around along time, and is extremely widely used. I do agree with you though, that many people are too quick to grab some random OS code and then run into support issues later on. It always scares me when I'm working on a project that has accumulates a dozen dependencies on various people's github repos, that may or may not actually be maintained or stable.
- randomdata 14y ago
  I'm not share I really share in those same fears. If the code does what you want of it, you have saved considerable time not having to write it yourself. If it proves to have bugs/compatibility problems in the future, then you can fix those issues, just as you would have to do if you had written it yourself. It is rather unlikely that your attempt at the problem will yield any better results over the long haul, so maintenance is a fact of life either way. If a project is actively maintained by someone else, that is just an extra sweet bonus.
  - ominous_prime 14y ago
    I do agree, but one has to be willing to take on the responsibility of maintaining that code if need be. The offending codebase isn't always vetted in that sense, and it may not be something you want to take over.
jgrahamc 14y ago
> Sounds like he's trying to report bugs in projects that are either dead,half-dead or just the work of one guy as a side project. I'm one guy with a side project (http://gmsl.sf.net/ http://gmsl.sf.net/) and I try to fix bugs and add features when they come in. I've been maintaining it for years. The main thing to do is decide if you are going to maintain something, or if it needs to be handed over to someone else. I did the latter for POPFile (http://getpopfile.org/ http://getpopfile.org/) which is handled by a small team of people since I no longer had the energy or time to maintain and improve it.
rhizome 14y ago
jPlayer and IM are certainly not dead. Furthermore, if it's half-dead or one-guy, how hard is it to say so? ImageMagick had enough time and effort available to disable their bug email address, after all.
axusgrad 14y ago
I only have a couple of hours per week to work on side projects. I'm shy to "release" anything, because there is no way I could support it. If someone else had the time to contribute improvements, I'd rather they fork it and use for their needs instead of waiting on me to integrate things. Most people would rather make their own than takeover someone else's small project, right?
- MatthewPhillips 14y ago
  No, release it. It's true that some people would rather write their own thing from scratch but you'll be surprised, many are not shy about forking. The worst thing that can happen is your project is ignored, so please release.
  - vidarh 14y ago
    I'd add release, and add a notice that you can't provide support, but are happy for people to fork it. If it's hosted a place like github, there's then an easy way for people to track down those forks if needed. The problem isn't really unsupported code, but when it is hard to decide if the code is unsupported or not. If you know, you can make an educated decision about the cost of using the code anyway.

smackfu 14y ago

The problem is that ImageMagick was clearly the image handling software of choice for years and years. So you rationally build a solution on it, then you find a bug (often a regression caused by an upgrade), and then there is no support for it. That sucks, and changing to another project that happens to be well-supported this week doesn't really fix the core gripe.

npsimons 14y ago
I was about to say something similar; last I checked, ImageMagick was far from dead or "just one guy". As I was reading TFA, I was thinking "Okay, two projects I haven't heard of, might be one offs" but then his retelling of his experience with ImageMagick made me sit up and take notice. If it's really this bad, it might be time for someone else to take it over.
- plorkyeran 14y ago
  ImageMagick has been just one guy ever since the GraphicsMagick fork in 2002.
  - npsimons 14y ago
    Ah, yes, seeing that now. I get them mixed up sometimes.
  - sciurus 14y ago
    And FWIW, GraphicsMagick has an active bug tracker. http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?atid=537937&group_id=73485&func=browse http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?atid=537937&group_id=734...
up_and_up 14y ago
Imagemagick is alive and well. You just need to know where to look. Post something at http://www.imagemagick.org/discourse-server/ http://www.imagemagick.org/discourse-server/ and you'll see a response within a few hours.

ominous_prime 14y ago

In his defense though, ImageMagick has been around along time, and is extremely widely used. I do agree with you though, that many people are too quick to grab some random OS code and then run into support issues later on. It always scares me when I'm working on a project that has accumulates a dozen dependencies on various people's github repos, that may or may not actually be maintained or stable.

randomdata 14y ago
I'm not share I really share in those same fears. If the code does what you want of it, you have saved considerable time not having to write it yourself. If it proves to have bugs/compatibility problems in the future, then you can fix those issues, just as you would have to do if you had written it yourself. It is rather unlikely that your attempt at the problem will yield any better results over the long haul, so maintenance is a fact of life either way. If a project is actively maintained by someone else, that is just an extra sweet bonus.
- ominous_prime 14y ago
  I do agree, but one has to be willing to take on the responsibility of maintaining that code if need be. The offending codebase isn't always vetted in that sense, and it may not be something you want to take over.

jgrahamc 14y ago

> Sounds like he's trying to report bugs in projects that are either dead,half-dead or just the work of one guy as a side project. I'm one guy with a side project (http://gmsl.sf.net/ http://gmsl.sf.net/) and I try to fix bugs and add features when they come in. I've been maintaining it for years. The main thing to do is decide if you are going to maintain something, or if it needs to be handed over to someone else. I did the latter for POPFile (http://getpopfile.org/ http://getpopfile.org/) which is handled by a small team of people since I no longer had the energy or time to maintain and improve it.

rhizome 14y ago

jPlayer and IM are certainly not dead. Furthermore, if it's half-dead or one-guy, how hard is it to say so? ImageMagick had enough time and effort available to disable their bug email address, after all.

axusgrad 14y ago

I only have a couple of hours per week to work on side projects. I'm shy to "release" anything, because there is no way I could support it. If someone else had the time to contribute improvements, I'd rather they fork it and use for their needs instead of waiting on me to integrate things. Most people would rather make their own than takeover someone else's small project, right?

MatthewPhillips 14y ago
No, release it. It's true that some people would rather write their own thing from scratch but you'll be surprised, many are not shy about forking. The worst thing that can happen is your project is ignored, so please release.
- vidarh 14y ago
  I'd add release, and add a notice that you can't provide support, but are happy for people to fork it. If it's hosted a place like github, there's then an easy way for people to track down those forks if needed. The problem isn't really unsupported code, but when it is hard to decide if the code is unsupported or not. If you know, you can make an educated decision about the cost of using the code anyway.