[Freeciv-Dev] Re: Development Strategies [Was Documentation, Usability and Development]

[Jules Bean <jules@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, Dec 06, 2001 at 11:34:23AM -0500, Andrew Sutton wrote:
> who gets to decide the eventual direction of the game. IMO there seems to be 
> considerable short-sightedness on the part of the maintainers. current 
> development is reactive to the needs of users and developers. this doesn't 
> help the release early, release often part at all. for example, i need a new 
> feature. if i can figure out how, i can write it. if it turns out that i need 
> to add a bunch of stuff and start messing with the structure of core 
> subsystem, it's going to turn me off from writing it. THEN, i have to submit 
> a patch and hope it gets included.

Andy,

I can't help noticing that you have something of a confrontational
tone in your emails.

It's always very exciting for the freeciv community when someone new
and enthusiastic comes along (Thue appeared, posted madly for a while,
went and implemented the isometric tileset [and other stuff] and then
disappeared shortly after!).  You obviously have a lot of skill and a
lot of enthusiasm to contribute.

But I think you should perhaps express your ideas with a little more
friendliness.

The answer to your question above -- 'Who gets to decide?' -- is, the
freeciv maintainers decide.  That's what they're there for, although
they make decisions based on discussion on this list.

But if you don't agree with their decisions, that doesn't mean you
can't carry on.  Fork your own development for a while, keep us
posted, and when you prove yourself right, submit your uber-patch to
turn freeciv into freeciv 2!

Even better, stay with us, stay with the status quo, and turn your
mind to making something really exciting (e.g. an embedded scripting
language for untis) happen...

Jules

..who doesn't speak for the freeciv team, or anyone, for that matter.