On 3/10/2019 2:32 PM, Mayayana wrote:
"Mike" wrote

| The best run test instrument project I ever saw
| started by writing the manual. They started
| with WHAT users wanted to do.
|

I think the smoothest piece of software I've written
is something I made for a friend, repeatedly going
back to watch her use it and see what she expected
it to do.

That's excellent. But you can't do that in many instances.
A general product can take some time to grind through
the bureaucratic process of a major corporation.
If you disclose early to customers, your competition can
beat you to the punch.
You have to predict trends, empathize with your customer,
define features/benefits and ask questions that verify
your assumptions without giving away the store.
Ability to do that is rare.

That process applies to open source. The designer has
to get something for his efforts. Even if it's just street
cred, there's motivation to be recognized.

That kind of feedback is a luxury. But it's
also important, for me at least, to actually be interested
in the functionality. The best software is the software
that the author needs themselves.
I think that with a lot of the geek products the
inspiration is not so much to make good software
but rather to perfect the algorythms. What should
be 2nd-stage polish is, instead, the only part
they're interested in working on.

That's a two-edged sword.
Current apps do 99% of what you need and are 102% what
you never use.
So you write your own program to do what you need.
It's a world class program doing that.
You're done.
Unless it's linux.
Then you establish a competing branch to the tree.

If we're lucky you don't fork a distro that features your contribution.

Problem is that nobody wants it because you didn't include
the features that post to instagram and email you when
your dog needs to go out and book your next vacation.

So, some other geek adds all that and forks your program again.
But he has a different UI bias.
And no interest in thoroughly evaluating compatibility.

So some other geek adds....

After 20 years of that, you have...well...you have desktop linux.