[sword-devel] Important things!

[Jerry Hastings]

At 12:16 AM 10/10/2000 +1300, Stephen Denne wrote:

>In addition, or as a start, it would be helpful to newcomers if the main
>coders outlined what their development environment consisted of.
>eg you might say that you use wincvs and borland c++builder 5 on Win98SE or
>something.
>
>Stephen Denne.

Thanks for the reply, Denne.

After posting I was afraid my message may have sounded just critical. I 
didn't mean it that way and just wanted to open the process up for 
observation and consideration. So, your input was very welcome.

And beyond environmental compatibility how should any new code work with 
the old? When should a new feature be a rewrite of old code or be a new 
function? What to pass and return? Do I need to know how Sword works or can 
I write the new code in a vacuum?

The problem, as I see it, is that when people want a new feature, even 
though the feature may be clear the code need is not clear unless one 
already knows and understands the Sword code. You may be ready to take on 
writing a simple function, but would you be ready to take on learning the 
Sword code, so you could be sure you understood what was needed. However, 
if someone that knew the Sword code already, were to write a specification 
for the needed code, you could jump right in if the specs were to your liking.

Jerry