Re: help building boost with V2

From: David Abrahams (gclbb-jamboost_at_[hidden])
Date: 2003-09-27 06:24:39

Kirill Lapshin <gclbb-jamboost_at_[hidden]> writes:

> David Abrahams wrote:
>> I can only speak for myself, but from my standpoint it's mostly
>
> Lets ask people to speak up. Few subjective points of view could add up 
> to more or less objective one.
>
> As for myself, I honestly never even tried to understand V2 in full 
> detail. I have some (limited) experience with regular jam, and I like V2 
> as user much more. I've read docs couple of time, browsed code a little, 
> but complexity was quite overwhelming, so I was giving up every time. I 
> can make a local change, lookup the behavior from sources, but I don't 
> feel comfortable with making big changes.
>
> Add to this the fact that Vladimir is very responsive to user requests, 
> and V2 is in quite good shape at the moment, so why would I bother 
> hacking my way through the code if I could just ask on mail list? :)
>
> Does it mean that V2 is bad? I don't think no. 

I'm sure you meant "I don't think so". I don't think it's bad
either, and I hope I didn't give that impression.

> Overengineered? I don't know enough to judge on this one, but it
> might be the case. Lacks documentation? Certainly. Would more/better
> documentation simplify life for users? Absolutely. For developers?
> Not really sure.

All of those factors you mentioned, including to some extent
Vladimir's responsiveness (but please don't stop, we'd be lost
otherwise!) contribute to a situation in which he is the only person
really comfortable with the design of the system, even though there
are at least a few people I know who are actually motivated to make
significant contributions. That means BBv2 doesn't get many of the
usual benefits of open-source software, among them the momentum of
multiple contributing partners and a feeling of security for users
that if one person goes away for any reason, the software will still
have a life.

-- 
Dave Abrahams
Boost Consulting
www.boost-consulting.com