Development

It turns out that 10 to 12 developers on a project may well be the optimal number for maximum efficiency and productiveness. No surprise, then, that all open-source projects of which I'm aware have 15 (or fewer) core developers. So why do we in the open-source world often make so much of the "thousands of eyeballs?"

Because open source is not about aggregating a community to work on the code, but rather an array of communities to work on code. Open source works, even when a project becomes big, by staying small.

I therefore found this blog entry on software development (via Zack Urlocker) from Bob Warfield fascinating:

Mark Masterson reminds us that people have been saying for a long long time in places like the Mythical Man Month book that system design integrity is best achieved through the work of a single mind. The alternative is design by committee, which dooms us to understanding by committee and all the inefficiency and waste that goes along with that approach...Abstractions properly constrain the performance and functionality bottlenecks of a system to make them more comprehensible. Yet how often do we really focus on making architectures or code understandable? In what actionable way is that something you can measure and act on?… Read more

Is Linux pushing the envelope a bit too far, too fast? That's the question posed by Charlie Babcock's interesting article on the pace and scope of Linux development. Dan Frye argues that Linux represents a "first-of-a-kind developer community." Most people don't recognize this, thinking that all open-source projects are similar to Linux.

Not at all. The breadth of its community differs from most projects. Its ambition, too. This may actually be as much cause for alarm as it is for celebration:

Torvalds is pushing open-source development tactics to new extremes. As the kernel grows in size and complexity, the rapid-fire iterations are straining the capacity of the community of volunteers who test and debug them.… Read more

Amazon used to be known as the "World's Largest Bookseller." Today, it sells a wide range of things, but also can boast one of the world's largest developer networks. Today, Krugle is announcing that Amazon has selected Krugle's syndicated code search technology, Krugle DevNetwork Edition, to help software developers more easily find code within the Amazon Web Services developer network.

This is the fifth such deal Krugle has signed lately, putting its code search tools in front of 1/3 of the world's 14 million developers. Other developer networks powered by Krugle include IBM developerWorks, Yahoo! Developer Network, SourceForge.net and Collab.net.

This puts Krugle at the axis of open source and Web (SaaS) development. While today Krugle is in the mode of enabling developer productivity through search, it will be interesting to see where it goes next.… Read more

Apple's announcement today that it would deliver an official, full-blown software development kit for the creation of third-party, native iPhone applications was a surprise to some, a relief to others and mere event course for still others. We spoke with two individuals who have been instrumental in the unofficial third-party iPhone application scene:

Miksam Rogov of Nullriver Software, whose Installer.app for the iPhone (an easy-to-use method for download and installing native binaries directly on the device itself) has been perhaps the largest catalyst for development thus far, says an official SDK was inevitable.

"It's what I … Read more

A post to Apple's Web Page from Steve Jobs says it all:

"Let me just say it: We want native third party applications on the iPhone, and we plan to have an SDK in developers? hands in February. We are excited about creating a vibrant third party developer community around the iPhone and enabling hundreds of new applications for our users. With our revolutionary multi-touch interface, powerful hardware and advanced software architecture, we believe we have created the best mobile platform ever for developers.

"It will take until February to release an SDK because we're trying … Read more

Mark Shuttleworth knows how to build communities and he knows how to make money. It turns out the two go hand in hand.

As he suggests in this article, the traditional software world forces customers and the countries that give them citizenship into a consumer, dependent status. Open source does the opposite, ennobling and enabling these same users. The result? Economic development:

...[T]he goal for any country, including South Africa, should be sustainable economic growth, part of which is derived from the contribution made from a technology perspective. "In this context it is wealth creation that matters, since the former will potentially generate high-quality jobs," [Mark Shuttleworth] adds.… Read more

This hack on open source from John Dvorak is just that: a hack. One intended to get page views. By linking to it I assist him in his quest, I suppose, but I do think his post serves as a reminder that open source needs to continue to improve its ease of use.

But see, there I go: like Dvorak's system administrator (who actually wrote the piece below), I'm treating all open-source software under a blanket description and all Windows software under its own blanket description. The truth is far more complicated: some open-source software stinks, and some open-source software is manna from heaven. (Handbrake is so easy to use that even Dvorak's system administrator could use it.)

Still, there's some truth to what he says as it relates to community-developed software:

My theory is that when people use VI it lowers their standards as to what good software should look like and causes their minds to physically alter in a way that leads to VI syndrome leading to delusions that their little piece of [expletive] software is the greatest program in the world and that they are just so superior to Microsoft that it?s just a matter of days before Microsoft collapses and everyone accepts Linux as God.… Read more

Apparently, OpenOffice 3.0 is intent on picking a fight with Microsoft Outlook. Bonne chance, mes amis. I don't mean to imply that it can't be done, but am rather suggesting that this is not the right way to go about it. Zimbra, sure. Or Mozilla's Thunderbird (standalone), sure. But bundled into OpenOffice? I'm not seeing it.

This arises from a presentation delivered earlier this year at the OpenOffice conference:

Bundling a runner-up PIM/e-mail suite with a runner-up Office replacement? Not likely. Disruption is the way to go, and the combination is not disruptive.… Read more

Depending on whom you listen to, the One Laptop Per Child project has either produced the world's greatest monstrosity or the world's most innovative laptop (for the developing world, anyway). But as Geek.com notes, there is plenty to learn from OLPC, whether one likes it or not.

Where OLPC becomes really interesting for me, however, is what it may do to the machines that I use on a daily basis. I'm unlikely to crank up power for my machine anytime soon (though I wouldn't mind having a laptop with me when I go backpacking in the Wind River Mountains each year). But that's not the point. OLPC is paving the way to all sorts of new thinking in computer design.

One area is in simplicity: