[Rd] fortune? (was: Re: How do you make a formal "feature" request?)

[Liviu Andronic]

Dear all
I was wondering whether such a long post could be fortune-ed. What do you think?

Regards
Liviu


On Sat, Aug 21, 2010 at 9:33 PM, Sharpie <chuck at sharpsteen.net> wrote:
> Well, I can think of three ways it can go down:
>
>
> 1.  You want a shiny new pony.
>
> You ask about it on the mailing list and it seems that everyone else in the
> world responds "Hell yeah! I want to ride that too!".  In this case the
> natives are restless enough that someone on R-Core may personally implement
> the feature- especially if they want to ride the pony as well.
>
> In this case, you need to provide a detailed specification of what kind of
> pony you want, how it should be groomed and the exact pitch at which you
> want it to whinny.  A good template for such as spec would be a Python
> Enhancement Proposal (PEP) which is the way community-suggested core changes
> are implemented in python.  An example is:
> http://www.python.org/dev/peps/pep-0389/
>
> However, going this route is extremely rare.  You have to have a significant
> amount of the user community rallying behind your idea and buy-in from core
> developers who are interested in implementing and, most importantly,
> maintaining and supporting the code.
>
>
> 2. You want a shiny new pony but not many other people in the word seem
> interested.
>
> In this situation you can do the work yourself, or with a group of other
> like-minded pony enthusiasts, to bring your idea into the world.  Perhaps
> the genetic material you are looking for is already present in the vast
> herds of other ponies running wild on CRAN and elsewhere and you just have
> to do a little breeding to get what you want.  Other times, the only way to
> do right is to write everything from scratch.  Either way, in the end you
> will have a pony that shines exactly the way you want it to that you can
> enjoy for the rest of your life.
>
> In this case, getting your new pony into R Core is unlikely.  The best
> response you can hope for is something along the lines of "That is a mighty
> fine pony you have there, but we really don't want it crapping all over our
> stable".  They are not trying to be rude- the facts of life are that the
> members of R Core have a limited amount of time and a lot of other ponies to
> clean up after.  Add to that the fact that shoveling pony shit is a
> thankless job that does not pay well and it is understandable why R Core may
> be conservative about the number of ponies they let into the official
> stable.
>
> However, they will be more than happy to provide your pony with a stall at
> CRAN so that everyone else in the world can take it out for a spin.  I have
> never had a problem with installing and using packages from CRAN, even on
> windows machines that have been locked down and then shot in both kneecaps
> by the friendly neighborhood IT gestapo.  All and all, this option is
> actually a pretty sweet deal; you will just have to drop by the CRAN stall
> every once and a while and deal with the pony droppings yourself or people
> will start to avoid it because of the smell.
>
>
> 3. You want a shiny new pony, but dont have the time or energy to pick out
> or put together the exact one you want.
>
> In this case, you can still get the pony you want but it will cost you
> money.  There are R programmers out there who can write you a package if you
> pay them the right price.  Supporting your local grad student population can
> also work; hunger is a great motivator.
>
> In the end you can also pay a corporate pony breeder like SAS for a trusty
> thoroughbred that is well respected by people in high places.  However, you
> may notice that these ponies bear some telltale signs of inbreeding-- one of
> their eyes may not point in the same direction as the other or the pony
> becomes confused easily when put in an unfamiliar situation.  Given there is
> not a lot you can do about these defects, you may suffer a crippling case of
> buyers remorse especially when you see the bill.
>
>
> Ok, I think i've thoroughly beat this horse analogy to death and I'm going
> to stop now.
>
> -Charlie
>
>
> -----
> Charlie Sharpsteen
> Undergraduate-- Environmental Resources Engineering
> Humboldt State University
> --
> View this message in context: http://r.789695.n4.nabble.com/How-do-you-make-a-formal-feature-request-tp2333593p2333737.html
> Sent from the R devel mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
>
> ______________________________________________
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>



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