*** Readings ***

For testing layout and readability,
here is the begin of 'The Cathedral and the Bazaar' by Eric Raymond.
Linebreaks are in 'Chinese Style', following the sense.

Nowadays, I believe it's important to point at the strengths of other cultures,
what we can learn from each other. E.g. from a culture, which did continously
develop for more than 4.000 years. In opposition to the "western cultures",
which did experience several severe regressions.

There's too much war, too many rising ressentiments.
 

--- The Cathedral and the Bazaar ---

Eric Steven Raymond
Thyrsus Enterprises

This is version 3.0

Copyright 2000 Eric S. Raymond

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document 
under the terms of the Open Publication License, version 2.0.
 

 Abstract

 I anatomize a successful open-source project, fetchmail, 
 that was run as a deliberate test of the surprising theories 
 about software engineering suggested by the history of Linux. 
 I discuss these theories in terms of two fundamentally 
 different development styles, 
 the ``cathedral'' model of most of the commercial world 
 versus the ``bazaar'' model of the Linux world. 
 
 I show that these models derive from opposing assumptions 
 about the nature of the software-debugging task. 
 I then make a sustained argument from the Linux experience for the proposition 
 that ``Given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow'', 
 suggest productive analogies with other self-correcting systems of selfish agents, 
 and conclude with some exploration of the implications of this insight 
 for the future of software.
 

The Cathedral and the Bazaar

Linux is subversive. 
Who would have thought even five years ago (1991) that a world-class 
operating system could coalesce as if by magic out of part-time hacking 
by several thousand developers scattered all over the planet, 
connected only by the tenuous strands of the Internet?

Certainly not I. 
By the time Linux swam onto my radar screen in early 1993, 
I had already been involved in Unix and open-source development for ten years.
I was one of the first GNU contributors in the mid-1980s. 
I had released a good deal of open-source software onto the net, 
developing or co-developing several programs (nethack, 
Emacs's VC and GUD modes, xlife, and others) that are still in wide use today. 
I thought I knew how it was done.

Linux overturned much of what I thought I knew. 
I had been preaching the Unix gospel of small tools, 
rapid prototyping and evolutionary programming for years. 
But I also believed there was a certain critical complexity above 
which a more centralized, a priori approach was required. 
I believed that the most important software (operating systems and really large 
tools like the Emacs programming editor) needed to be built like cathedrals, 
carefully crafted by individual wizards or small bands of mages working 
in splendid isolation, with no beta to be released before its time.

Linus Torvalds's style of development—release early and often, 
delegate everything you can, be open to the point of promiscuity came as a surprise. 
No quiet, reverent cathedral-building here rather, 
the Linux community seemed to resemble a great babbling bazaar 
of differing agendas and approaches (aptly symbolized by the Linux archive sites, 
who'd take submissions from anyone) out of which a coherent and stable system 
could seemingly emerge only by a succession of miracles.

The fact that this bazaar style seemed to work, and work well, 
came as a distinct shock. As I learned my way around, 
I worked hard not just at individual projects, 
but also at trying to understand why the Linux world not only 
didn't fly apart in confusion but seemed to go from strength 
to strength at a speed barely imaginable to cathedral-builders.

By mid-1996 I thought I was beginning to understand. 
Chance handed me a perfect way to test my theory, 
in the form of an open-source project that I could consciously try 
to run in the bazaar style. 
So I did and it was a significant success.

This is the story of that project. 
I'll use it to propose some aphorisms about effective open-source development. 
Not all of these are things I first learned in the Linux world, 
but we'll see how the Linux world gives them particular point. 
If I'm correct, they'll help you understand exactly what it is that makes 
the Linux community such a fountain of good software and, 
perhaps, they will help you become more productive yourself.
 
(Read on at http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/cathedral-bazaar/ )
--- misc 23 / 11