random thoughts on development strategy

[Joao Inacio]

Peter Damoc wrote:

> I don't know if this has been suggested before BUT it might be a good 
> idea to encourage universities to adopt Ubuntu or better said to adopt 
> parts of Ubuntu... A lot of them already use linux but very few 
> actually contribute code.
>
> Another idea is to create developer vacuum... A lot of people could 
> contribute but they don't know what they can do, how they can help, 
> most consider themselves to unexperienced to mess with some random app 
> and prefer to leave that to the "experts". An exhaustive TODO list 
> with "requirements" attached could prove very helpful. like in:
>
> TODO: Proofreading new documentation to feature X
> Requirements: English
>
> TODO: Fix Layout to Open Dialog in RandomApp so that it conforms to 
> HIG 2.0
> Requirements: python/pyGTK , HIG 2.0 knowledge
>
> This way Joe Random User Wannabe Developer could say "Hey... I can do 
> that!" As I said... vacuum... something to attract the future developers.
>
> Of course bounties could be attached to these TODOs to make them more 
> incentive.
>
> It is a great satisfaction to be part of a software project, even if 
> your contribution is just a small fix that everybody could have done 
> it in 15 minutes. Also there are a lot of young brilliant people that 
> could use such a system to become the UberGeek of their neighbourhood.
>
> Another issue is i18n ... translating an entire system is one huge 
> task that might seam unsurmountable. Maybe there could be compiled 
> some previous experience with this... cooked a strategy... a path... 
> sweeten the pill because in my view it is a pill, it is something 
> necessary that none wants,  maybe one big table with links to the 
> software and current status for each part. There are a lot of distros 
> that are just recompilations of a classic with better support for some 
> language... maybe Ubuntu can attract some of the enthusiasts behind 
> such distros like it did with the developer of Gnoppix.
>
>
I agree with these thoughts!
This could be an incentive (and i'm not even speaking about the bountys 
;) ) for some users to at least look at some code and maybe, who knows, 
start contributing with something usefull;

Speaking for myself, i code for win. (mostly delphi) and also a lot of 
php, but was always interested in doing something usefull in "real 
languages" :P
The fact is, i never had a good reason to look into it...