[Geowanking] Software Standards - The Ugly Truth

[stephen white]

On 23/06/2007, at 1:49 AM, Landon Blake wrote:
> I've written a blog post on the OpenJUMP blog about some of the
> problems with software standards.

It's the same family of problems as open source sucking (because  
nobody finishes stuff), conferences sucking (because thinking doesn't  
happen there), and articles in magazines and weblogs sucking (because  
the authors are journalists). Nobody knows which of those standards  
will be accepted, which will be dropped, or the effects of those  
standards. Rather than having higgle-piggledy code, the idea of  
standards is to make them at least marginally documented for other  
people.

In practice, the number of attempts at establishing standards is  
idiotic because it would be a great idea to have an actual working  
product before attempting to extract the features worthy of  
preservation in a standard. Also in practice, the number of articles  
written by journalists is idiotic because we need to read from the  
people who really know their stuff, not just those writing to have X  
number of words per Y number of weeks.

Unfortunately, in taking a shot at the people developing standards,  
you're also highlighting your foot as a target. I would have to ask  
why you write articles in areas where you've only spent a couple of  
weeks, such as software licensing. On the other hand, the other  
option is silence - which is less desirable... and also the other  
option is not to have software standards - which is also less desirable.

In conclusion, I think we all muddle along up shit creek, scooping  
poo with our bare hands until we figure out that it's fertiliser for  
something... The whole human race is a monumentally inefficient  
organisation, so why take pot shots at those trying to do something?  
There's a much larger collective of morons that just stare at a TV  
while polishing the arse-crack in the cushion.

--
   steve at adam.com.au