Developer Only Discussion List

[Hamish Greig <hgreig AT bigpond.net.au>]

On Thu, 19 Feb 2004 09:16, Jose Bernardo Silva wrote:
> We once had a roadmap with a 1.0 release date that was forgotten and
> renegotiated when it was found to be unatainable. We can do that again, if
> it really needs to be done. I'd rather have the hardware detection in the
> ISO, too, but...
> Apache style, I vote +0.
> ___________________

the opposite has happened here, instead of disclosure of problems, discussion 
and planning of a revised roadmap, people have been running around closing 
valid bugs and marking them as either completely closed due to lack of time 
pre 1.0 or marking them as a feature request for post 1.0.
I find this unacceptable, most of these bugs are things we developers know 
are 
problems and would rather have them fixed prior to stating we have achieved 
stable, functional 1.0 status,
I found recently I have almost no input into sorcery and its bugs, but I can 
reopen the few bugs that have been incorrectly handled in ISO and Cauldron.
If it takes me until the end of March to implement all theses extra features, 
then that is when I will release my product. If it takes longer ? Then it 
takes longer. Other teams could utilise this extra time to work on bugs in 
there products.
Hardware detection would have been icing on the cake, but there are more 
important, more useful features planned for the installer. 
The same problem exists here, if we had been notified of the problems with 
both hardware detection and spellifying the ISO process, we  could have given 
time to help. Instead our queries were answered with statements like 
"it is going well, a few problems, but going well, should be good for 1.0"
right up until the bug was closed
http://bugs.sourcemage.org/show_bug.cgi?id=3601#c5

Dont misunderstand me, I am not calling anyone lazy or stupid or demanding 
higher committment to peoples volunteer duties, I understand we all have 
different skills and differing amounts of time to donate. What I AM saying is 
this entire project has suffered from a lack of open communication, we are 10 
days away from a deadline that almost no-one is able to meet, with respect to 
the features previously agreed upon by majority of developers. 
This is the reason I am leaving, I don't want people to work harder, I wanted 
them to work smarter, but I have come to understand that is not part of the 
SMGL culture. So after a year of fighting this culture, I now accept that 
despite the enormous efforts of a few key people, this project has to mature 
at it's own speed. It can only ever be as good as its uncommunicative 
developers allow it to be.

Hamish

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