[lug] Software Projects as well....

[Alan Robertson]

"Scott A. Herod" wrote:
> 
[snip]

> Recently, I
> looked into a couple of big (pseudo-)open-source projects, Mozilla and
> OpenOffice, as well as learning to use VC++ with MS's COM specification.
> 
> The code and design of these projects make me cringe in horror.
> ( So does perl but that's a separate issue. )  Are these things the
> future of software development or an aberration?

They were designed and written as *commercial* products.  Both were
"open-sourced" as an afterthought.  It's not really fair to call them open
source projects.  I have a similar reaction to reading the code in FailSafe
-- for the same reason.

> It occurs to me that the linux kernel itself is another example of
> a large open-source project.  In a way, it is the antithesis of the
> two projects that I mentioned above.  I also found it extremely easy
> to quickly become conversant with it and to begin making changes to it.

There is a difference between a viable open source product, and a viable
open source project.  The latter are much more interesting and more fun. 
Which is why I still work on Linux-HA instead of FailSafe -- even though
failsafe is much more capable at this point in time.

	-- Alan Robertson
	   alanr at unix.sh