Re: PEAR a way forward

Craig Constantine wrote: > --On October 4, 2006 11:34:09 PM -0500 Greg Beaver <cellog@php.net> wrote: > > >>Ideas that start as ideas have at best >>limited success, and at worst a terrible track record of offending and >>scaring off developers. Ideas that instead start as technical solutions >>and implementations eliminate the need for ANY political discourse, and >>make our lives better. > > > I agree with your "track record" analysis. But I think *no* discourse at > all is a bad idea -- thus my airing my ideas to test the water. You appear > to be saying to me, "ok craig, if you love your idea, go build it and show > it to us." Hi Craig, I am afraid I have been unclear. Nowhere above have I said that there should be no discourse. In fact, the point is that without grounding ideas in the reality of how people most effectively communicate, they simply lead to lots of mailing list emails, nothing being accomplished and frustration. However, you *are* absolutely correct in the 2nd point. Always build an idea so you are sure it is good before presenting it here. It saves a lot of time. If you can build it in code, all the better. As a member of a professional string quartet, I spend much of my day trying to coordinate and compromise what I want with what 3 other strong personalities want (did I mention they have strong personalities? ok good, as long as we're clear on that). 99% of our arguments start when one of us brings a half-baked idea into the rehearsal, and tries to impose it on the group. As we rehearse, it becomes clear that the idea either doesn't make sense to someone, or simply doesn't work. The person who proposed the idea understandably feels that their idea is very good, and if they could just communicate it better (translation: those other idiots would just listen more carefully...), then it would make a big difference. This results in a downward spiral, until the original proposer realizes the idea was half-baked, and we all graciously agree to drop the idea until it is fully baked, calm down and move forward. Thanks, Greg