[Coco] [Color Computer] Re: Why USB would be nice.

[John R. Hogerhuis]

On Fri, 2005-09-02 at 19:16 -0400, John W. Linville wrote:
> On Fri, Sep 02, 2005 at 11:34:40AM -0700, John R. Hogerhuis wrote:
> 
> > Here's my advice: when others say they will work on something, just
> > encourage them. If they don't deliver, no one is any worse off than they
> > were before. If they make good, everyone can be helped. Nagging them,
> 
> I'm inclined to disagree to a point here...  All too often I've seen
> someone on the list proclaim that they were "working on" or even
> "almost done", "design complete", or whatever with something that
> I had been keeping in the back of my mind to do.  So I take those
> things off the TODO list in hopes of seeing them produce something.
> More often than not, those things never quite appear.  This leaves
> the whole thing in limbo, since I don't want to be the jackhole who
> steals someone else's project.

I understand what you're saying. But projects cannot really be stolen.
It's called friendly competition. I think the one exception might be
"open source" software, but then you can use something like the GPL. If
someone uses your work, you get the benefit of what they do too.

> 
> Now take that problem, and realize that some of those people are
> particularly bad about proclaiming that they are working on this, that,
> and the other thing.  Only, none of them are ever quite finished...
> 
> My hope would be that others follow the example set by Roy Justus
> (sp?).  Roy didn't say he was thinking about a VGA adapter, that he
> had the design all worked-out in his head, that it would be ready
> real soon, etc.  He actually built something, THEN he started talking
> about it.  And it works...I've seen it.
> 
> I think the whole community would be better off following Roy's
> example.  I'm tired of being discouraged (and seeing others
> discouraged) from working on good projects because someone else is
> shouting about how he almost has it done.
> 

Personally I'd rather know that someone has been working on something.
Then you know who you can "goto" if you need help with your own effort.
I can offer to help, see where they might be stuck, offer to take over
the project, etc.

Plus sometimes it's fun to talk about projects whether or not they ever
get done.

No point in being discouraged. There's no exclusive right to any
project. If you get tired of waiting, you can always offer to help or
start your own effort.

-- John.