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Date:	Fri, 1 Aug 2003 09:58:19 PDT7
From:	Peter Skye <pskye@peterskye.com >
Reply-To:	scoug-programming@scoug.com
To:	scoug-programming@scoug.com
Subject:	SCOUG-Programming: Re: Warpstock 2003 Presentation

Content Type: text/plain

Steven Levine wrote:
>
> Peter's problems were two-fold.
>
> -- First was the unwillingness to believe that no one else
> had the problem.

Yes, although the several people I discussed this with all thought I was
either setting the date wrong or had the program misconfigured. I agree
that I believed it was something that I alone was seeing, and I couldn't
grasp what I needed to do to fix it.

Open source isn't going to fix *that*. :))

> -- Second was the classic end-user inability to describe
> what he was seeing in a way that others understood it.
> Once he got to the point where he could say I did this
> and this and this and this happened, the time to where
> the problem was understood and reproducible was small.

I had to work for _hours_ to narrow down the problem and then create a
reproducible sequence of steps which led to the failure. It took me
three years just to get to that point, and if it wasn't for Steven's and
Mark's constant suggestions and encouragement (albeit often in
frustration) I never would have nailed the cause of the problem.

And do you want to know what finally led me to the steps causing the
failure? Pattern recognition. Two other programs (NewView is one of
them) had failed on my 1600x1200 display so I finally tried Relish in a
very small window, even though the failure didn't seem to have anything
to do with the program's display system. It worked. That led to a
flurry of testing which illuminated the minimize-then-maximize window
scenario, a critical component of the failure.

Determining the problem was the horrendous task, just as Steven says,
not the ability to see the actual code. Open source isn't going to fix
this aspect of bug-removal either.

> Open source is not an automatic
> solution for any software defect.

Agreed. Open source is a definite help in some (many? most?) cases
because a curious programmer may immediately spot an obvious fix ("you
didn't reinitialize the variables if more than one file is being
processed").

I'd be more comfortable with the Open Source movement if it was part of
a cohesive system that also included a methodology for fixing problems
reported by feisty obstreporous users.

> Blaming others for our problems seems
> to be part of the human condition.

My name is Peter and it's all my fault. :)))))

- Peter

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