encouraging beginners is all well and good for small projects, but for larger or more complex projects, it's impractical
...because DW is not at all complex, nooo.
(yeah, I know, it's hardly the biggest thing out there, but it's not Hello-world-in-BASIC either.)
I have said this before, and will again, because it's true: I *love* DW, and the openness of the dev community. And as someone who's gone from ... I think my first non-english-stripping patch was a typo fix (</b> to <a>) ... to overhauling an entire freaking page (and sure it's not as pretty or as elegant or as concise or as shiny as it could be, but it's functional and it's making the page better and more usable) ... um, I had a point, but lost it in there.
Still, the world-view this guy has -- that beginners will make mistakes, so the patches will be rejected, so they will get frustrated and leave -- is such a self-fulfilling cycle. (Preaching to the choir, I know, but.) Because yes, beginners make mistakes, but what happens next depends on how the established dev community reacts: "Ew, that's horrible, you shouldn't be doing coding, go back to the kitchen" will drive people away, "I suppose it does what it's supposed to but it doesn't conform to our arcane unwritten standards that we won't tell you" will drive people away, but "Hey, if you could fix X and Y and Z that would be great" / "Committing the patch, but keep in mind P and Q for the future" will get people to try again, until they are part of the established dev community. Which will then grow instead of shrinking.
no subject
...because DW is not at all complex, nooo.
(yeah, I know, it's hardly the biggest thing out there, but it's not Hello-world-in-BASIC either.)
I have said this before, and will again, because it's true: I *love* DW, and the openness of the dev community. And as someone who's gone from ... I think my first non-english-stripping patch was a typo fix (</b> to <a>) ... to overhauling an entire freaking page (and sure it's not as pretty or as elegant or as concise or as shiny as it could be, but it's functional and it's making the page better and more usable) ... um, I had a point, but lost it in there.
Still, the world-view this guy has -- that beginners will make mistakes, so the patches will be rejected, so they will get frustrated and leave -- is such a self-fulfilling cycle. (Preaching to the choir, I know, but.) Because yes, beginners make mistakes, but what happens next depends on how the established dev community reacts: "Ew, that's horrible, you shouldn't be doing coding, go back to the kitchen" will drive people away, "I suppose it does what it's supposed to but it doesn't conform to our arcane unwritten standards that we won't tell you" will drive people away, but "Hey, if you could fix X and Y and Z that would be great" / "Committing the patch, but keep in mind P and Q for the future" will get people to try again, until they are part of the established dev community. Which will then grow instead of shrinking.
Or, to sum up: Rah, ILU and Mark and DW ♥ ♥ ♥