[luau] Any Open Source Programmers?

Jimen Ching jching at flex.com
Tue Oct 22 10:14:01 PDT 2002


On Mon, 21 Oct 2002, Don Brown wrote:
>> There is also another problem.  Since there are few local software
>> developers, it is hard to find enough people with the _same_ interests to
>> organize a group.  I knew people from work who contribute to free
>> software.  But we have different interests, so we never hooked up.
>Yeah, that's why I'd throw out the question just for the hell of it.  I
>couldn't really see what you'd do as a group, but it would be pretty cool to
>find out somone who hacks the same project you do lives near by.

If you work on a large project, it helps a lot to have lots of
face-to-face time.  Development moves a lot faster with face-to-face
communication than with email or IRC.  Of course, I never did like IRC
that much.  I prefer ytalk.  Ytalk sends your keypresses to the recipient
as you type it.  IRC and other instant messaging protocols are line
oriented.  It only sends text after you hit enter or something.  Ytalk
also gives you the same multi-user chat capability.  Though after about 5
to 7 people, you run out of space to display everyone's text.

The ability to transmit keypresses as they are hit allows one to interrupt
someone.  Thus, if the other person misunderstood what you said, you can
avoid long explanations by simply interrupting the person and quickly
restate your message.

I guess you can tell I'm very impatient.  30 seconds to wait for someone
to finish typing their sentence is just 29.5 seconds too long.  ;-)

Another advantage for having a group is in brainstorming sessions.  You
can throw out an idea and have instant feedback.  Using email requires
lots of preparation.  IRC helps a little.  But trying to explain things
with IM is really annoying.  Maybe it's just me.

--jc
-- 
Jimen Ching (WH6BRR)      jching at flex.com     wh6brr at uhm.ampr.org




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