Is the world coming to an end?

[Jonathan M Davis]

On 2011-04-03 18:03, Caligo wrote:
> I don't understand why so much time is spent on such a small issue as
> octal syntax while there has been no discussion on how to recruit more
> developers to work on GDC or LDC2.  You could have the perfect
> language, but it wouldn't mean anything if you don't have a stable and
> reliable compiler for it.  GDC has one active developer, and who knows
> how long he'll stay active.  I don't want to see GDC die a second
> time.  LDC2, same situation.

I think that it's essentially a classic case of bikeshedding. It doesn't take 
much to understand, so it's something that pretty much anyone can have an 
opinion on and comment on. So, they do. Whereas with more complicated topics, 
it takes enough time and effort to understand them, that people often don't 
know enough to have an opinion on them and aren't really able to comment on 
them.

And as far as getting people to work on actual code goes, that's a whole other 
level of time committment that many can't or won't give.

It would be worth a lot to the community if a larger percentage of the 
community pitched in and helped write and fix code - be it for dmd, Phobos, 
gdc, qtd, or whatever. But we need developers who have both the time, skills, 
and desire to work on those projects, and the number of developers who have 
all three of those is unfortunately rather small.

So, all too often, it's bikeshed issues that get the most focus and attention, 
and the stuff that really needs to get worked on isn't helped by that. But 
unfortunately, I think that that's pretty typical for this type of community. 
There are always more people with the time and desire to comment than there 
are with the time, desire, and skill to actually get work done on what the 
community needs work done on.

- Jonathan M Davis