You know Python is the best damn scripting language in the world.
However we harbor a collective secret, an elephant sized skeleton in
the community closet, a shameful scarlet letter of heartlessness and
ego centric-ity. Why is this the case? Why have let it go this far?
And most importantly, why the heck are we not doing something about
it?
I have said before that Tkinter is lacking, however in the same breath
i laid out grandiose plans for a new beginning only to have my words
fall on deaf ears. Have we become so self absorbed as to care only for
our status and ego and not for the community at whole? Have we adopted
a pecking order that has become so ingrained into our minds that it
cannot escape the clutches of our own pedantic selfishness?
Some may wonder why i am ranting about this today, well i'll tell you.
I use Tkinter quite liberally and i always seem to find a limitation
of the GUI. Now, just because a package has limitation does not render
it worthless, no! All packages have some limitations whether they be
literal "brick wall limitations"[BWL], or "stumbling block
limitations"[SBL], or whatever. Now, whilst i know for a fact that
Tkinter has many dire [BWL] that render most packages moot. Most of
the time a budding Tkinter noob will hit upon the stumbling block
kind. The kind that not only trip you up, but send you flying face
first in a festering and pungent cess pool full of feces and despair.
Why must this happen i ask? Whist most of us can agree that [BWL] must
be accepted as "facts of life" we must never *ever* accept that [SBL]
to be the norm.
Now you may be asking yourself, "What are some of the causes of
"stumbling block limitations". Here is a short list in the promblem
domain of software...
* Poor Documentation or lack thereof
* Knowledge Hoarding
* Selfishness
* Lack of alturistic tendancies
These four points represent the meat and potatoes of a community in
turmoil. A house divided against itself cannot stand. Lets discuss the
points in detail one by one
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1. Poor documentation (or lack thereof):
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Everyone knows that dcoumentation is important however at the end of
the day laziness is the rule of thumb for profesionals and weekend
teckies alike. But why be a part of any open source community and
propagate laziness? We must be more strict about doumentation. However
it seems the age old policies of "it's not what you know, but *who*
you know" or more correct;y adapted tot he situation at hand..."it's
not imprtant how well you document a module *unless* you are not a
goodfella (psst: a memeber of Guido inc).
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2. Knowledge Hoarding:
-----------------------------------------
Somehow, i dunno? I though this was an "open source" comminuty but boy
was i wrong. The old "Practice what you preach" ring a bell anyone,
hmm? We have people who would screm from the rafters about MS or some
other company horading knowledge through evil software patenting
practices however they have no problem going mum when "johnny the
noob" can't get module x, y, or z working correctly because of PISS
POOR DOCUMENTATION! I have enlightened this group long ago of the
limitless possibilities of IDLE to be a good primer for our budding
young programmers however like all my great brain children this one
has been cast aside like a red headed stepchild. Guido himself carries
most the blame squarely on his shoulders because as we all know IDLE
was Guildo's baby. And at the beginning this baby looked like a
keeper, however with years of neglect this baby has matured into a
lackluster hodge podge of half baked ideas and little or no
documentation. Not even the best pythonistas can follow this spaghetti
code without setting aside a full weekend of seclusion that would make
a hermit envious. Something must be done and i am sick and tired of
the silence from capitol hill. I want Guido to answer for these
crimes. I want hime to apologize, and i want him to sit down with me
(and any other interested parties) so we can formulate a battle plan
to get us out of this mess. The time for redemtion is nigh Mr Van
Rossum.
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Selfishness and lack of alturistic tendancies.
-----------------------------------------
Well those two go hand in hand.
nuff said.
--rr
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