[horde] [imp] default reply behavior in dimp/imp

[Craig White]

On Wed, 2011-09-07 at 06:28 -0300, D G Teed wrote:
> On Wed, Sep 7, 2011 at 4:02 AM, Craig White <craigwhite at azapple.com> wrote:
> > On Tue, 2011-09-06 at 17:01 -0300, D G Teed wrote:
> 
> > Let me give it to you simply enough so you might possibly understand...
> > You have the full source code. If there's something that doesn't work
> > how you want, you can change it yourself. That is the entire point of
> > open source software.
> 
> That is the often repeated mantra of open source software.  However
> is it maintainable?
----
of course it's maintainable... that's done widely. I do it for many open
source projects and the only reason you are suggesting otherwise is that
you have zero software skills and simply are content to leach and bitch
when it doesn't do exactly what you want.

Basically all software is written and then revised and the differences
would likely be separated into a patch. Thus utilities such as 'diff'
and 'patch' are core to software development (or various counterparts
depending upon the middleware environment). It's common practice to
create modifications and thus create a diff/patch file.

Thus it's somewhat effortless to maintain patch files which you would
apply any time you update the base software.

All of that said, I'm rather surprised that you would so blatantly
expose yourself to offering absolutely no value to open source
implementation whatsoever. If you can only follow installation
instructions, you are nothing better than a monkey with a keyboard. If
we dismiss the acquisition cost of proprietary software, the biggest
difference between proprietary software and open source is that you can
actually modify open source software in any way you want while you have
to swallow proprietary software hook, line & sinker... it's almost
always binary so you can't change a thing.
----
> In this case I feel the problem is wider than just me.  I've seen
> about 4 other users say the current design makes no sense to them.
> I'm also thinking of all of the users in the world who could be negatively
> impacted by this.
----
don't mistake 4 vocal users as being a significant number. I don't know
of any statistics but I am reasonably sure that there are thousands who
have downloaded and put Horde/IMP into use.
----
> I identify with the NASA engineer who warned people about the o-ring
> and freezing temperatures.  Most people don't listen to warnings about
> "what if" and want to carry on.
----
irrelevant
----
> Go ahead and damage lives out of ignorance.  I won't.
----
you have many options... don't use it or disable DIMP. Patch it - it is
open source after all.

It's probably not reasonable to expect everyone to equate 'reply all' to
damaging people's lives - I surely don't see it that way and obviously,
neither do the principal developers. Personally, I find your overly
dramatic characterizations as rather self-involved and immature.

Craig


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