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Softpanorama |
May the source be with you, but remember the KISS principle ;-)
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I like open source implementations and personally use MC on Linux, but I would like to warn from Vulgar Raymondism: an attempt to absolutize the value of the source code and disregarding more important issues of the quality of implementation, standard conformance and availability, as well as algorithms quality.
"Open Source" is a very good idea that we all should support, but pluralism is even better idea. I would not go that far as to suggest that open source or free OFM implementations are inherently better that, say, shareware implementations. Software authors need to eat and to motivate them by just the satisfaction from the creating of own "theory" (clearly software process has some connections to inventing a mathematical theory or writing a literary work) might be not enough. Generally it's a very complex question that I have no space to discuss in this book. For some thought provocative treatment of this topic one can browse my two papers in the First Monday magazine that are referenced at the Open source critique page
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Last modified: April 24, 2008