What it seems to come down to is a lack of initiative. We
are all willing to wait until someone else does something for
us, and then report on the problems. But it's hard to start
something and push it out there. First, you expose yourself to
criticism and bug reports. You might feel uncomfortable about
your code. Don't. Don't worry about those things. We the
community as a whole will be much more grateful for your
efforts in making the project better than insulting you for
mistakes or "ugly" code. We can work on minor issues like
that. Especially if everyone is helping.
There are two things that I want everyone to consider
helping with. First, look at my post on using Github (and use
whatever Git-supported service you prefer) to help develop,
add features, and fix bugs in branches. I can then pull them
into the master branch easily. Second, I have started to build
a Coding Guide on our GNU Radio Wiki ( http://gnuradio.org/redmine/wiki/gnuradio/Coding_guide).
It's very basic right now, but we can pull in the text that is
in README.hacking, too. I find, and I think others do as well,
that getting information in the form of a webpage is
preferable to a text file. We can use this space to iterate
and evolve our style, and then hopefully (over time) backtrack
and improve the existing code that we find lacking.
If we can get your help for stuff big and small, I really
think we can start to see us making the project even better
than it is now.
Thanks for your time,
Tom
Having been a contributor of both new-content and bug-fixes and
"sidecars" (like build-gnuradio), I can attest that the experience
is very
rewarding. I only regret that I can't spend more time on making
Gnu Radio better. Between my full-time job, and spending my
"spare" (ha!) time *using* Gnu Radio for actual applications work,
I find I have less time for bug-fixing/contributing than I used to.
The Josh object is amazing, to be sure. But even an energetic young
whipper-snapper like Josh can't keep from burnout forever.
So, those of you who feel competent to contribute, and have been
holding back, JUST DO IT :-)
--
Marcus Leech
Principal Investigator
Shirleys Bay Radio Astronomy Consortium
http://www.sbrac.org
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