Lukas-Fabian Moser <[email protected]> writes: >> We now pause for the usual explanations that no composer would ever >> want to do this, by programmers who don't write music. Finished? >> Good. Let's continue. > > That's not the tone I'm used to (or, for that matter, want to get used > to) reading on the lilypond-devel mailing list. Please stop posting in > this manner.
Since LilyPond is maintained by volunteers, the only use for such a tone is in the context of self-fulfilling prophecies. Things will get done by people wanting to do them. Employing this kind of tone makes sure that they do not have an incentive to actually help. Sometimes that is exactly what the person who employs such language prefers: it prevents the discussion actually getting anywhere where they themselves could offer to help, and they get a feeling of superiority out of it for contributing nothing at all (actually less than nothing since it also disincentivates unrelated work on the application) and certainly nothing productive. One also needs to keep in mind that a complex program like LilyPond relies on lots of design decisions that make certain things easier or harder to implement accurately, and may make it challenging to reliably implement "good enough" approximations working in a number of circumstances. The "preemptively berate who may help you" approach may work better in situations where the people you berate are actually required in some manner to help you. But even in government administrations where this is nominally the case, there is no point in souring the relations upfront and get people to the point to only do what they are legally required to do for you. With a volunteer self-propelled project like LilyPond, that approach is not leading anywhere sensible and only serves as a foundation for resentment on either side. Add to that the lack of any sensible subject line, and it is hard to view this as anything other than unproductive venting at an inappropriate audience. -- David Kastrup
