Re: Nethack! (was): AdaGames

[dennison@telepath.com (Ted Dennison)]

Juanma Barranquero <lektu@terra.es> wrote in message news:<1ntnau8q4vfj5sj2srpa22kk71bntldhl2@4ax.com>...
> >Anyway I think it would be better to start a rogue from scratch in Ada
> >that try to port NetHack. I've been wishing to find the time to do it
> >(develop a new rogue in Ada, I mean) for years... :(
> 
> (Sorry for the self-quoting).
> 
> So now the only thing lacking is volunteers to write the FARG
> (Full-Ada Roguelike Game) :)

(I have the same point here, but I'll try a different tack this time.)

You are trying to put the cart before the horse. OpenSource projects
don't generally work like that. They have a natural lifecycle, which
starts with only a single individual. ESR goes over this in detail in
his writings at http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/writings/ (particularly the
first two). The executive summary would go something like this:

1) One Motivated Individual (MI) writes something useful (perhaps
marginally) that works, and releases it.
2) Others try it out and like it. Some of them become MIs.
3) MIs improve the product a bit, and release their improvements.
4) goto 2.

Its silly to go looking for loads of MIs before you have a product. So
what AdaHack needs (assuming it needs anything) is the first MI to get
it started.

The initial point I was attempting to make was that its silly to go
out and try to recruit loads of people to do something like this. If
you want it done, go write something and release it!

-- 
T.E.D.
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