The Heart of the Matter

From: Dave (dfisher_at_pophost.com)
Date: 2002-03-08 15:33:29


On Fri, 8 Mar 2002 12:37:44 +0000, Jim Peters wrote:

>I really want to make progress with this project -- it seems like a
>very worthwhile goal to me. If I wasn't so interested in reaching the
>goal, I might well have drifted off by now. I think we have a good
>team coming together here, with experience in lots of areas, all from
>quite different backgrounds. With some respect for one another's
>abilities, and acceptance of our own individual lack of ability in
>certain areas, I really hope we can work out these difficulties.

I also value both aspects of the process, from design-to-code. I have been
both hacker and project manager, and value both venues. Sometimes I wish I had
not unlurked myself just yet, as I truly want to do what you, Doug, want to do
in terms of identifying the objects, hash out issues of inheritance, and get on
with laying out the needs and challenges of the system.. But, for reasons I
have already stated, I have to attend to the hacker in me and make sure I have
a firm grasp of how to make my own code work before being of use to the design
process here. I see that coming to an end somewhere early next week. Most of
what I am working on will hit the scap heap. Some of it might not, but the
experience of coding, especially for a specific manufacturer's EEG device
(ProComp) has been of inestimable value to me. I just have not been able to
dedicate the necessary neurons to the design dialog, but most certainly will.

Now, with all that said, I did start with a design (it's on my website),
identified classes which would model that design, coded them, and then had to
hit the whiteboard again because of some snags I did not anticipate. We can
probably reduce the number of times we have to rework our design simply because
we will have more minds to offer experience and insight (rather than the one
person model I have been working under). If "I'm not sure" questions arise
during design, then there may now be enough of us here with coding experience
to mock up some quick tests to answer those "Not Sure" questions.

Basically, I want to work with you, Jim-P, Jim-M, Doug, John, Andreas, Joerg,
and all others who want to combine their energies to produce a solid, working
system that meshes with all our needs. This can be done. We have the
technology. And we must also have the heart -- for each other, and our work.
So, perhaps with a bit of lessening of the use of the caps key, we can begin to
attend to the heart of the matter, and let that grow outward into a fabulous
design process and rich experience on levels we probably cannot even anticipate
yet. Because I think that there are many here whose interest is not just what
the technology can do, but how it can be used -- to facilitate an expansion of
our hearts, our minds, and spirit. That, to me, is the underlying foundation
that supports the concrete foundation of our design, management and coding
styles, and is what I look forward to most.

Dave.



This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : 2002-07-27 12:28:40 BST