[ubuntu-art] Hacking / Kludging - WAS Re: gtk theme

[Matthew Nuzum]

On Thu, Mar 6, 2008 at 9:06 AM, Troy James Sobotka
<troy.sobotka at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> >>  > Patch the code.  Kludge it out when we have no other option.  Let the
> >>  > progression happen.
> >
> > In short, it isn't really perfectionism (well, a bit...), but it's
> > more a matter of maintainability.
>
> It certainly isn't optimal, and I am well aware of the shortcomings.
> The point isn't to kludge / hack _everything_, but do it where it is
> required to achieve an innovation.  Animated progressbars might be an
> example here.

And let me point out two things:

The open source moto is, "release early, release often."

Also, there is a programming standard way to do denote this. You put a
comment in your source code near your hack followed by a TODO: and
what you want to change. Many programming editors will highlight this
line specially and some, like eclipse, will even show a todo list
below the source code editor listing each item.

You also create a file in your source's root directory called TODO and
outline things you consider less than ideal. It's ok to use a hack if
its well documented and understood what you're trying to do.

// TODO: is there a better way to show animated scroll bars?
// This is a HACK but it works
// (optional extra explanation if your code is particularly clever and hard
//  to understand)

-- 
Matthew Nuzum
newz2000 on freenode