Re: improving the CG

[Graham Percival]

On Sat, Dec 19, 2009 at 11:45:15PM -0000, Trevor Daniels wrote:
>
>> I just want to copy&paste, go get a coffee, then start editing
>> files.
>
> You might, but I don't agree this is a good attitude
> to encourage in contributors who might go on to
> write LilyPond code.  We need contributors whose
> eyes do not glaze over when confronted with complexity.
> Your advocated hit and often miss approach would result
> in disaster if adopted by a programmer.

I'm advocating that people should concentrate on the relevant
stuff.  If I'm working on the docs, I shouldn't need to learn a
lot about the build system.  If I'm programming, I shouldn't need
to learn a lot about git.  I want people to focus on the stuff
they want to improve; anything that they must do before (or after)
they can start working on the stuff they _want_ to work on is a
hurdle.

I've got a Masters in CS, I've spent over 8 hours on lilypond per
day for the last two days.  I'm intelligent and far too willing to
spend time on lilypond.  But I still don't know what a git ref is,
and I can't write a branch-specific checkout command from scratch.
Why?  Because it's not relevant to all the tasks I _want_ (or at
least, "am willing to") work on.  This doesn't make me sloppy.

Cheers,
- Graham