On 2/24/2016 9:43 AM, John Darrington wrote:
> Unfortunately I disagree :(
>
> Yes it is loud. It is scary. It was intended to be those things.
John,
I don't want to be augmentative but I cannot ever agree (for several
reasons, outlined below) that "scary" is good. And I know you're a
"FLOSS guy" so I'm surprised that we disagree about those points; so
I've tried to clarify.
> I do not follow your reasoning why it could possibly be construed as a GPL
> violation (but if we choose to exercise Option 7b of the licence, then
> removing this text would be a violation).
I made the point that the message is a kludge added to fix a problem
already addressed by the GPL. So there is sense in which our kludge
supersedes or overshadows the GPL and we are ignoring the GPL guidance.
I don't know that we are in "violation" but we should adhere more
closely to the GNU guidance.
And we are "scaring" users; especially Windows users who don't know
"git" from "production." Isn't scaring users and explicitly telling
them not to use a snapshot ("for production") directly contradictory
with FLOSS practices like "release early and release often" or the
concept that "given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow?" What other
FLOSS software includes such an intentionally scary message?
You related a story about a bad review. I think those concerns are
perhaps natural but fairly contrary to FLOSS. But assuming The Message
precludes another bad review, is that worth it to "scare" users to
preclude that bad review? Does the message actually preclude (or even
reduce the chances of) another bad review?
Is the message even sensible? Aren't there likely to be bugs and
limitations in official releases? And so isn't the "not for production
use" part of the message _approximately_ as true for the release as for
newer snapshots? Are Windows users _really_ better off using 0.8.5,
rather than the most recent snapshot that Harry has provided? Obviously
not, right? So why would we tell them not to use the best, most recent
version from Harry rather than 0.8.5?
-Alan
--
Alan D. Mead, Ph.D.
President, Talent Algorithms Inc.
science + technology = better workers
+815.588.3846 (Office)
+267.334.4143 (Mobile)
http://www.alanmead.org
I've... seen things you people wouldn't believe...
functions on fire in a copy of Orion.
I watched C-Sharp glitter in the dark near a programmable gate.
All those moments will be lost in time, like Ruby... on... Rails... Time for Pi.
--"The Register" user Alister, applying the famous
"Blade Runner" speech to software development
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