[Axiom-developer] A student comment

[daly]

> I am a student too and I don't think I have a lack of interest in
> computer science, nevertheless lisp and ")help Fraction" looks very
> archaic to me as well. But in any case, Axiom developers should try to
> motivate students to work on it, not discourage them by telling them
> they are stupid and annoying.

I started open source programming in the late 90s and was quite 
idealistic about the whole idea, contributing to other projects
and starting my own project (Pinger). 

In the last few months I've gotten quite cynical. I don't see the
sense of community, cooperation, and selfless assistance I used to
see. Now I see a great deal of "it should be different" but no actual
code to support the "should". Or "it should run on X" with no actual
code to support the "should" (hyperdoc? graphics? sman? clef?). Or "it
should be licensed thus" with no thought of the great deal of effort
freely given under the current license. Or "it should be windows
based" with no effort to try to actually make it run. Or it has a bug
with no effort to find/fix/test/diff/patch the bug. Or "it should
.... " fill in whatever anyone has an opinion about what "it should
do" or how "it should be". 

I remember a time when open source was characterized as a group of
people who "scratched their own itch", that is, they wrote CODE that
make the world look like "it should". I remember a time when open
source was characterized by people who freely gave away code so that
others could benefit without restriction because it was the right 
thing to do. They used the code, they fixed or extended the code, and 
they sent the changes back, a very small part of a much larger whole.

I have wasted a year debating. I have wasted a year listening to
people say what it should do. I have wasted a year trying to explain
to people that this is open source and there are certain norms about
how to contribute code and documentation. I have been posting
diff-Naur patches to try to show how contributions are done.  I have
lost patience with people who say "this is nice but..." or "it should
do this" or "make it work the way *I* want it to work" or "graphics
should run on windows" or "this isn't windows so it is archaic" or 
whatever the complaint is.

Opinions about what "it should do" are worthless. No code, no sympathy.
Download the code, scratch your itch, test it, document it, diff it,
and post it. I've done that with projects, had patches rejected (e.g. noweb)
and accepted (aldor tutorial typos, presumably). But I made the effort.

Students need to find their own motivation. Either the itch is great
enough and the student good enough to scratch it or not. Asking for
help in fixing/extending/documenting is well supported. I just built
a whole Suse 10.2 system and an axiom image to debug a problem. But
the person with the problem ACTUALLY TRIED to do something.

I'd have been much more sympathetic if the student sent in a patch to 
make )help start hyperdoc on windows. I don't recall seeing a patch.
The student has the source, the student has the time, the student has
the opinion, the student has the itch. I await the patch.

Tim, the newly cynical curmudgeon.