A while ago, I was playing around with Trac (the open source wiki/fault tracking/software project management tool) and felt the need to make it do something it didn’t already.  So I created my first Python “Egg” and Trac plugin called TracHtgroups (or HtgroupsPlugin).  As a lark, I uploaded it to the awesome Trac Hacks site so that others could benefit from my (very minor) work.  Of course, I thought that “benefit” to be entirely hypothetical…

Until yesterday, when I received my first bug report!  People are using it!  And there have been other Trac plugins written to inter-operate with it.  I’m blown away.

I write code for fun and stress relief and the joy of learning and the challenge of doing something that I’ve never done before, or perhaps has never been done before by anybody.  I don’t actually intend anyone else to actually use it.  Although a quick reflection suggests that if that were really true, I would not have placed it on the Hacks site to start with (or put my other scripts up at froosh.wordpress.com).

w00t!

[As I was writing this a small willie-willie/dust-devil/mini-tornado whooshed across the road from an empty car park and ripped some tiles off the roof.  I haven't gone up there yet to see the extent of the damage - it's just too freaking hot on the dark tiles facing west!]

I’ve always* used both Windows and Linux in my personal and professional lives, so have basically ignored most of the Microsoft vs. Linux (and GNU/OSS/etc) rhetoric out there. Hypocritically though I was suprised by the article – it was straight-forward, accurate, and there was no taint of “it’s all the fault of the open-source-hippies”. In fact it was the opposite, with an educational piece about the nature of Linux timekeeping systems at the end. Huh. Who’da thunk it? Learning something about Linux from Microsoft.

Wow. I really am very inconsistent. I claim to ignore the religious war, but just read that comment above… May I be tortured by dumbass users for eternity!

*always since Linux became available to me in late 1992 sometime.

Update: oops, forgot the credits! Thanks to the Virtual PC Guy’s WebLog!

I love the fact that I can solve my own problems, and then submit the fixes back to the developers … and actually have them pay attention! And I don’t mean this in just a theoretical sense; this is something I actually do.

In my professional career as an “I.T. Systems Engineer” I have to diagnose faults with an amazing variety of big budget, closed source software. Once I have determined the solution (and occaisionally actually created patches or other code fixes), I find that the vendor has absolutely no interest in actually fixing the product and completely ignores any suggestions or solutions. (The conspiracy theorist in me says it’s because they make so much more money out of their premium support services)

No so with the open source projects I have participated in. For starters, it’s so much easier to diagnose issues when you can see the actual code, tinker with its innards, re-compile, etc. Once you have a solution, it’s normally a very simple task to submit changes, patches, documentation, and fault reproduction procedures back to the developers. Who more often than not are completely under-paid – if they are paid at all! The best bit comes next … the developers take your patches, integrate them into the product …and … say “Thank you”

This is sooo different from my daily professional grind. It’s so fulfilling I have to gush The best response I get from a vendor in my professional life is to be ignored. The worst was when I actually got accused of revealing trade secrets … serves me right for trying to do good

I’m probably spoilt a little by working with the WordPress folks: they are really on the ball, and patches are often vetted, approved and applied within minutes! Unfortunately the only changeset that I have attibution on is one for a typo..

Hmm this post is a little dis-jointed, mostly due to it being written in several quick sessions over the last few days.