OT: Re: [MPlayer-dev-eng] [PATCH] cleanup language handling in configure

[Shachar Raindel]

On Mon, 2 Aug 2004 17:38:51 +0200, Fabian Franz <fabianfranz at gmx.de> wrote:
> Am Sonntag, 1. August 2004 11:04 schrieb Reimar Döffinger:
> > Hi,
> >
> > > After fixing a language handling bug in configure today I kept staring
> > > at the language section for a while.  It's much more complicated than
> > > it needs to be.  Here is a first stab at simplifying things a bit, but
> > > I'm sure it can be taken further.
> >
> > That happens to me too all the time I look at some MPlayer code ;-)
> 
> Then you should fix it ;-) or bug the maintainer to do so ...
> 
> But we should not forget that the messiest functions sometimes are the best
> tested as each bug lead to another workaround and such getting messy.
> 
> I think there is an excellent article about that on:
> 
> http://joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000069.html
> 
> I found this via:
> 
> "The Joel Test - 12 Steps to better code"
> 
> http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000043.html
> 
> , which is also imho worth a read.


Well, first of all, we all know that MPlayer suffers from a very
severe creeping featurism (see
http://info.astrian.net/jargon/terms/c/creeping_featurism.html for
definition)

About the test, lets see....

The Joel Test

   1. Do you use source control?
Yes, good opening....
   2. Can you make a build in one step?
cvs update -dPA && ./configure  && make distclean && make && sudo make install 
counts???? I guess no.....
   3. Do you make daily builds?
daily what? No.....
   4. Do you have a bug database?
Yep, though it is rather new, and not yet very populated....
   5. Do you fix bugs before writing new code?
iff the patch for the bug arrived to the non-existing maintainer
before the patch for the cool feature of the day arrived to the
semi-existing maintainer.... no.....
   6. Do you have an up-to-date schedule?
Schedule? What is this weird thing? No.
   7. Do you have a spec?
? What? Real programmers don't need spec.... They write all of the
features in one go, even if the started from hacking avi-file.....
no.....
   8. Do programmers have quiet working conditions?
I don't know about you, but my working conditions includes between 5
and 50 people around me, making noise and asking weird questions.....
no....
   9. Do you use the best tools money can buy?
Everything that GPL can buy? They are the best compilers and debugging
software out there, but I think we need some more ISO/IEEE/other cool
very expensive standards for development (oh, and internal
MS/Real/Apple documents).... I guess this is a no as well....
  10. Do you have testers?
mplayer-adv-users ? I think this qualify as a yes...
  11. Do new candidates write code during their interview?
Since the interviews are either by sending patchs to mplayer-dev-eng,
or by bribing Arpi, I think this is a yes....
  12. Do you do hallway usability testing? 
Hallwhat? Can't everybody type sudo mplayer -vo xvidix -vf yuy2 -xy
420 -geometry 600:0 my_nifty_video.avi to get playback running? No.


    Well, we scored 3.... Way to go.... 

Quoting Joel: "A score of 12 is perfect, 11 is tolerable, but 10 or
lower and you've got serious problems. The truth is that most software
organizations are running with a score of 2 or 3, and they need
serious help, because companies like Microsoft run at 12 full-time."

Well, now we know why MS produce such good code..... Not.....

And BTW, I am pretty sure that if MS were implementing the hallway
usability testing correctly, WMP was able to rip DVDs into
XviD/mp3...... :-)

    Cheers,
    Shachar