Re: [bug #37411] Diagonal matrix attribution error and diag function bugs

[Juan Pablo Carbajal]

On Fri, Sep 21, 2012 at 10:52 PM, Paul Soderlind
<address@hidden> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I would like to give my (user) perspective on this.
>
> Users report bugs to hopefully get them fixed, but also to contribute to the
> Octave project. That sense of helping the community is quickly ruined if the
> reply is that you have to pay: money is a delicate issue in a collaborative
> effort like Octave.
>
> I can well see that developers could ask for payment to fix issues that are
> (a) not important and (b) tricky to fix. But, the developer has to explain
> that in a polite manner to the user - and give an offer (before the work is
> done). This is not the same as asking for payment for work that is already
> done, at least not in terms of attitude.
>
> Paul S
>
>
>
> --
> View this message in context: 
> http://octave.1599824.n4.nabble.com/Re-bug-37411-Diagonal-matrix-attribution-error-and-diag-function-bugs-tp4644437p4644451.html
> Sent from the Octave - Maintainers mailing list archive at Nabble.com.

I agree with Paul in many ways. Reporting bugs is definitely a
contribution, fixing them of course is even greater!
There is also the decision of the programmer to fix the bug, without
trying to offend anyone, nobody ask the programmer to do it. Hence the
programmer should work with the assumption that he will get any other
remuneration than the thrill of doing what he wants to do and the
excitement of helping software libre. I think that (and this may be
the path to doom, but who knows) the programmer should not feel
responsible for the reported bugs (will this cause apathy and the
eventual abandoning?), their should be driven only by they guts, and
realize themselves doing the coding.

However it seems that this feeling wear off and other kind of
retribution is needed to keep excellent contributors (as Jordi in this
case) attached to the project and reinforcing his positive association
with GNU Octave. What can we do? I do not know, but I see a lot of
troubles in monetizing the community (we may summon evil spirits). I
see pay what-you-want (including zero) as a possible alleviation, but
again I see many negative effects. We should have an IRC discussion on
this, a brainstorming.

Then comes the issue when there is people trying to get a living from
software libre projects... they need (emphasis on the need) money or
monetary retribution to live. Therefore the "collaboration" scheme
seems to not work under their pressing needs. Is software libre
bounded to the shadowy corners of our free time, away of the money
givers that employ our time to achieve, perhaps, frivolous and
egoistic goals? Is software libre married with academicals who have
more freedom in their schedule and can slip time of development as
hours for a project (btw, this is an indirect way of supporting the
project monetarily)?

Big thanks to Arun for supporting Jordi, and thanks to Jordi for his boldness!

-- 
M. Sc. Juan Pablo Carbajal
-----
PhD Student
University of Zürich
http://ailab.ifi.uzh.ch/carbajal/