[FFmpeg-cvslog] random thoughts about refactoring

[Ramiro Polla]

On Sun, Jan 10, 2010 at 2:42 PM, Michael Niedermayer <michaelni at gmx.at> wrote:
> On Sun, Jan 10, 2010 at 12:44:24PM +0100, Diego Biurrun wrote:
>> On Fri, Jan 08, 2010 at 02:28:16AM +0100, Michael Niedermayer wrote:
>> > On Fri, Jan 08, 2010 at 01:20:03AM +0100, Diego Biurrun wrote:
>> > > On Wed, Jan 06, 2010 at 06:38:14PM +0100, Michael Niedermayer wrote:
>> > > > On Tue, Jan 05, 2010 at 11:08:22PM +0100, Diego Biurrun wrote:
>> > > > > On Tue, Jan 05, 2010 at 08:43:51PM +0100, Michael Niedermayer wrote:
>> > > > > > On Tue, Jan 05, 2010 at 11:29:46AM +0100, Diego Biurrun wrote:
>> > > > > > > On Tue, Jan 05, 2010 at 03:20:47AM +0100, Michael Niedermayer wrote:
>> > > > > > > > On Mon, Jan 04, 2010 at 08:23:23PM +0100, Diego Biurrun wrote:
> [...]
>> > > > > > > > i still think copy and pasting the 4 hunks into patch is going to be the
>> > > > > > > > quicker way to fix this, thats not disputing that you eventually will come
>> > > > > > > > up with a convertion to proprer comments just that the work seems out of
>> > > > > > > > proportion to the purely cosmetic gain
>> > > > > > >
>> > > > > > > What is out of proportion is the ensuing discussion. What is
>> > > > > > > disheartening is the lack of motivation to actually fix the current
>> > > > > > > mess.
>> > > > > >
>> > > > > > My fix is to revert this. You refuse to do that. I dont really mind
>> > > > > > an alternative fix but i cannot fix what you precive as mess because
>> > > > > > i do not precive these //printf("some error condition") as mess.
>> > > > > > To me a note on toilet paper is as good as one on gold framed under glass
>> > > > >
>> > > > > Crufty code is not good, it will spread, do you know the broken window
>> > > > > theory?
>> > > >
>> > > > i didnt but i dont see how this is related nor do i see reason to belive that
>> > > > this theory has any scientific truth to it, it sounds alot more like mixing
>> > > > correlation with causation.
>> > >
>> > > I just have to look at my desk to confirm the theory. ?Ever since I
>> > > stopped keeping it tidy a few months ago, things keep piling up in
>> > > ways previously thought impossible.
>> > >
>> > > Or try sharing a kitchen with a few people for some time. ?Once you
>> > > lower the standards, everybody will start being messy.
>> > >
>> > > That's not saying that it will apply to all groups of people at any
>> > > time, but it will in most common cases (and I think ours is one).
>> > > Sociology works this way, it's impossible to conduct experiments with
>> > > the same rigor as in physics there...
>> >
>> > hmm, break your window and dont fix it, lets see if this will cause any
>> > of your neighbors windows to allso break and stay broken
>> > simple scientific test ...
>>
>> But it's a simple scientific test of a different thing. ?You cannot just
>> change multiple surrounding factors and hope for the results to stay
>> meaningful.
>>
>> Alternative experiment: Let's stop policing top-posting and offtopic
>> posting on ffmpeg-devel. ?Then wait for a year and see how habits
>> have changed...
>
> yes if you don fix ANY broken window you will of course have the number of
> broken windows increase. What the original claim was about though was that
> not fixing a subset of broken windows will by "magic" affect windows
> outside this set.

It's funny how any kind of Windows leads to long discussion in this
list (and it's always about Windows being broken =)