Re: [ros-dev] Time has come, a call to developers

[gedmurphy]

Aleksey Bragin wrote:

>   I especially delay the 0.3.5 release, because I want
> people
>  to concentrate more on bugfixes 
>   And if no beta this year, I'm sorry to say, but it
> may be 
>  too late. 
I couldn't agree more.

The development process of ReactOS has always been 'work on whatever you
want', however I don't think this is a viable method any longer.
This method leads people to work on pretty useless stuff, and only partially
finish other stuff.

At this stage, the important stuff is bug fixing important core components.
There's little point in having 5% of directx running if 95% of Windows
applications don't run. It's the core components which 3rd party software
heavily relies on to run. Ignoring these components is damaging to ReactOS
as it will hugely prolong the time span to Beta, and possibly lead to
eventual failure to ever become stable and mainstream,. As Aleksey said, if
people focused in bugfixing and other important stuff, we could hit beta
this year ... I just don't see that happening with the current development
model.

I therefore propose that a tighter leash needs to be kept on development,
and how this should work needs careful consideration.
This doesn't and shouldn't move towards some sort of commercial
dictatorship, but I do think a small amount of fun needs to be traded in for
some proper organization. If the project wants to start becoming serious, it
needs to start acting a little more serious in its development cycle.

One idea I had was to have focus days, whereby a component is chosen, lets
say user32, and everyone spends time bugfixing that. Brownie points are
handed out to the person with the most, or best fix. Another idea to try to
keep the fun is to everyone to pick an application from a list and see who
can get it running first.

However, these are just some fun and game ideas, not to be confused with the
fact that ReactOS needs to start getting tougher and what people should and
shouldn't be working on.
When ReactOS works, the world will adopt it, avenues of work and money will
flow!!

Regards,
Ged.