Developerfests vs Installfests

[Rick Tomaschuk]

A 'stunt' is a bad idea. I hate working for free. I still think one
event with many developer environments on hand to introduce to the
novice to the strengths and weaknesses of particular programming
environments for particular applications. I remember when the Vic20 came
out. Everyone was typing lines of code from the manual to see how an
actual lame computer program functioned. People are results oriented.
What could be more boring than an accounting convention? A computer
programming convention. Not many people want to watch a screen full of
brace brackets for hours on end. They want to see a quick evolution of
ideas into usable mouse clicks and keyboard strokes which will produce a
relevant output at the printer or screen or car dashboard or TIVO box or
hand held device or bank machine or ..... 

On Wed, 2006-06-28 at 21:32 +0000, Christopher Browne wrote:
> On 6/28/06, Ken Burtch <kburtch-Zd07PnzKK1IAvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> > On Wed, 2006-06-28 at 15:42 -0400, Rick Tomaschuk wrote:
> > > Some sort of developer environment/show (like Google summer of code) may
> > > be preferable to a simple Installfest. People need to see how to develop
> > > applications for Linux from sketch to debugged product. Window$
> > > advocates keep harping on how Linux does'nt have the 'developer model'
> > > like what the world's greediest men from Redmond developed. A push to
> > > promote multiple developer environments to quickly churn out
> > > applications will turn some heads.
> > > RickT
> >
> > PegaSoft has its annual Summer Programming Challenge and Linux Summer
> > Retreat in August.  However, my experience is that developers are
> > interested unless there's a big wad of cash involved.
> 
> I don't see there being any value in trying to do the "stunt" of
> having a LUG arrange something like this.  This isn't the sort of
> activity that leverages the Strength of Geographical Community that
> LUGs hold.
> 
> There's too much diversity of interests and too little specificity of
> competence in such contexts.
> 
> It is something that does, instead, frequently occur when groups
> associated with particular OSS projects get together.
> 
> For instance, July 10-12th, there will be a PostgreSQL "Code Sprint"
> in Toronto as most of the core developers will be in Toronto in one
> spot.
> 
> There have frequently been similar groupings at conferences:
>  - X11 work at various technical conferences over the years when a
> bunch of X-heads have been present
>  - OLS tends to be preceded by this sort of activity for Linux kernel developers
>  - The days before BSDCAN involved meetings of the BSD core folk together
> 
> In each of those cases, that's playing to the strength of the respective group.
> 
> When I was in Texas, there were several proposals for "coding stunts"
> that would always fall through because making up a project for the
> purposes of the stunt turned out to not attract anyone...
-- 
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