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

[Achim Zeileis]

On Sun, 22 Aug 2010, Liviu Andronic wrote:

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

It's a nice write-up :-) But a bit too long for a fortune...you wouldn't 
see nothing else (and maybe not even the start of the fortune) upon 
startup.

Thanks for the pointer anyway,
Z

> 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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