[ubuntu-art] Hacking / Kludging - WAS Re: gtk theme

[Troy James Sobotka]

>>  > Patch the code.  Kludge it out when we have no other option.  Let the
>>  > progression happen.

> (First post here. I'd like to say hi! :D) I don't know if I'm in any
> position to say this, but if you do things in a hackish way, you do
> advance, but at the expense of having more and more unmaintainable
> code. Sure, we'll go forward, but it will take more and more work to
> move any further. Put more hacks, and the code starts to become too
> much of a mess to even touch. (I don't have a good example here,
> though.)
> 
> In short, it isn't really perfectionism (well, a bit...), but it's
> more a matter of maintainability.

It certainly isn't optimal, and I am well aware of the shortcomings.
The point isn't to kludge / hack _everything_, but do it where it is
required to achieve an innovation.  Animated progressbars might be an
example here.

Our track record for doing things _before_ other competing operating
systems do something is not exactly stellar.

Putting in a kludge / hack accomplishes two things:

1) It clearly demonstrates the shortcoming in the current code set.
2) Puts a little more pressure on the architecture to evolve _properly_.

Heck.  If it weren't for the kludges and hacks here and there, with the
respective sarcastic comments in the code, where would FOSS be at all?

Sincerely,
TJS

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