[Gtkradiant] mo' bullshit

[EvilTypeGuy]

On Thu, Mar 28, 2002 at 02:14:41PM -0600, jeremiah sypult wrote:
> > > feedback welcome obviously :)
> Above all else, the map data is the most important thing. Once the map data
> starts to get corrupt that problem should be immediately attacked and
> corrected. Halt all other development -- especially new features and
> processes (they can be the cause)... Most -- if not ALL other bugs can wait
> when it comes to map data corruption.  Corruption is the ultimate poison to
> creativity and usage. Once you take something that allows people to express
> themselves happily, and allow it to destroy their creations, it becomes a
> disheartening poison... Think of it this way: what if your Microsoft or GNU
> C compiler corrupted small parts of your source as it compiled it? Or what
> if your text editor corrupted the buffer and places random characters in
> place of spaces and/or other characters? Determination starts to lower and
> the need to get away from the work increases.

> I hope I get the point across... Program crashes are one thing when you lose
> at a minimum of hours of work... But when your data becomes corrupt -- even
> if you have backups every week -- redoing that kind of work (especially on a
> creative level -- mapping AND coding) for a weeks worth of time can make
> someone who does something for free and fun want to give up. The thoughts
> have crossed my mind, but encouragement has kept me going. It goes a long
> way.

> Does this make sense? I'm up for comments and discussion...

It does, but realize that we're not always going to find the data corruption,
and to a certain extent we already do what you speak of, if a major corruption
problem is found that is the first thing that's attacked, now realize that
this doesn't mean that *all* developers simultaneously do it, it means one
person goes after it and the rest continue their work for which they have committed
to do (ideally). We need the users to find the corruption because we won't
always, and what may seem 'obvious' to you, may be something that we
easily overlooked. This is *not* a commercial product (in a certain sense of the
word...) so it doesn't have a full 'paid' QA process, which means there
are going to be some holes ...

So while people may/may not experience corruption, the editor does have
an autosave feature, and *anyone* using *any* application should always
have a backup of their important work, too many weird things happen in
the course of day to day application development.

Just a thought...
-EvilTypeGuy