Project anti-stupidity

[marc@cxr_rs6000.med.ge.com (Marc Wolfgram)]

Matt Ostanik, in an effort to thwart a really stupid flame-war commented:
>But I have caught most of the messages about Project Apple Storm.  And
>while it seems to me that some of the people at that so-called meeting
>were a bunch of jerks, I don't think that's any reason to jump down Matt's
>throat.  Matt has shown his commitment to the Apple II hundreds, if not
>thousands, of times, both by his helpful posts in c.s.a2 and the many
>programs and projects he works on for the Apple II.  While I suppose it's
>likely that he's not *that* worried about his job, as somebody pointed out,
>and he is paid to stick by Apple's policies, I see no real reason to doubt
>his loyalty to the Apple II.

That's a pretty good assessment of my feelings too, but I want to toss a
couple of other thoughts on the pile.

Everyone in the Apple II group is loyal to the Apple II... there are even
some people on the Mac side of the fence that are still loyal to the Apple
II :)  There appears to be ONE person in DTS that is very loyal to the II,
and it's incredibly unfair to blast him continually.  Being a commercial
GS developer, I have relied on the unfailing help of DTS many times in the
past four years.  DTS, from my perspective, _is_ Matt!  Consider that with
the growing complexity and interdependency of GS desktop applications there
_has_ to be strongly enforced rules.  If you write software that breaks the
rules, you can expect it to break the system at the very least.  Somebody
_has_ to police the world, and I don't see anyone else with the experience
that Matt has coming forth to fill that roll.  When somebody asks a question
on why his NDA or app or Finder extension can't do such-and-such, it's often
Matt who comes back with a real solution if it's possible, or a reasonable
explanation if it's not.  If you ignore the rules or try doing something 
that you either know you shouldn't be, or worse, try doing something without
the proper documentation (all of which is available) then you deserve a jab
to the ribcage (which Matt is all to happy to provide).  I wouldn't want to
have Matt's job... I'm too nice a guy, and would be frustrated quickly by
the stupidity that was handed to me each day.  Matt's got a tough job, and
he's demonstrated time and again that he's more than capable of handling
it... sometimes he's a tad caustic, but this is the real world and we don't
need mommy to hold our hands when we cross the street anymore.

The second point is somewhat basic... the supposition that everyone at Apple
having a golden path when II support finally goes away (and it will someday)
is totally bogus!  Pretend for an instant that you work for a company that
makes both Gizmos and Widgets... the Gizmos are neater than hell, but those
Widgets are quite foreign to you, and you really don't like them a lot.  You
live for Gizmos... You've got a couple of them at home... all your freinds
have Gizmos... You go to work one day and you find that your company is not
going to make Gizmos next year... but your "lucky"...  you can try out for
a job in the Widget department, AND if you work out you can stay employed
at the company... wow.  It ain't the same, folks.  I made a transition at
my company a couple of years ago, and I really liked what I was doing...
I was "lucky"... I'm still employed (which is an amazing thing in 1992 :)

While I hope that the folks in the various groups that support the II can
make graceful transitions into the "Widget" department (like Andy did last
year), I don't envy them.

[end soap-box mode]

Marc Wolfgram
AOL: M Wolfgram   GEnie: M.WOLFGRAM2   inet: marc@cxr_rs6000.med.ge.com
There are two ways to write bug-free code and only the third one works!