Re: A reminder about the facts

On 2 Jun 1997, Marcus G. Daniels wrote:

> Date: 02 Jun 1997 18:25:59 -0700
> From: "Marcus G. Daniels" <marcus_at_cathcart.sysc.pdx.edu>
> Reply-To: ncurses-list_at_netcom.com
> To: ncurses-list_at_netcom.com, ncurses_at_bsdi.com
> Subject: Re: A reminder about the facts
>
> >>>>> "ESR" == Eric S Raymond <esr_at_snark.thyrsus.com> writes:
>
> ESR> I don't need to keep ncurses if I can release it to a successor I trust.
>
> So when the new person comes along who manages the package in some way you
> don't like, how can we be sure you won't want to shut her down too?

Because that person will have been properly delegated the duty of maintaining
the software. If you had been following the list for some time, you would
have realized that Thomas tried to steer the project even while E&Z were
active maintainers. He acted like a one-man majority, putting together
releases whenever he felt like it.

If you ran a software company, what would you do if some hot-shot
programmer decided to make ad-hoc releases of the software and give them
directly to the users, bypassing things like peer code review, testing,
verification, version control and quality assurance?

There is a difference between the maverick acting alone and the employee or
group of employees who are delegated the roles of doing it according to
proper procedures.
Received on Tue Jun 03 1997 - 01:42:09 EDT