[PD-dev] updating 'puredata' package to 0.42.5

[Chris McCormick]

On Sat, Nov 21, 2009 at 03:02:14AM +0000, Chris McCormick wrote:
> On Fri, Nov 20, 2009 at 01:24:18PM -0500, Mathieu Bouchard wrote:
> > On Fri, 20 Nov 2009, Chris McCormick wrote:
> >
> >> Maybe I am misunderstanding something, but if this is a question of  
> >> being able to apt-get install vanilla Pd under Debian GNU/Linux, I 
> >> would like to have that option rather than only having the option to 
> >> install pd-extended.
> >
> > What's in pd-vanilla, that you can't have by installing pd-extended ?
> 
> Your question is the wrong way around. I can't answer it like that because it
> contains built in assumptions which don't make sense to me.

Hi!

Ok, I'll answer your question as if you'd asked it like this: "Why would you
like the option of running pd-vanilla?" Rather than the front-loaded question
you asked me.

1. Pd is minimal whilst pd-extended is maximal. Hans has stated on list that he
would like to include as many externals as possible in the distribution. I
think this is a bad architectural decision which leads to complexity and bugs.
I would rather run something which has an architecture I agree with.

2. pd-extended has not yet earned my trust as a software project. I have been
using Pd for a few years, and it has earned my trust. There are many things
which Miller has not implemented which I wish he had, but there are far fewer
things that he has implemented which I wish he hadn't.

3. Hans is the leader of the pd-extended project, and I disagree with many of
his technical decisions. I don't trust him to make technical decisions as much
as I trust Miller. This may be outweiged down the track by evolutionary
pressure, since pd-extended will be subjected to a lot more pressure than Pd
will be, because Pd basically has a sole maintainer. For me this is the biggest
thing going for pd-extended - it is properly exposed to the evolutionary
pressures of the Free Software community.

4. I often want to run Pd on constrained devices and in constrained places.
Getting it to do so is hard enough without the bloat that pd-extended
experiences. What if I want to apt-get install Pd onto my router/gumstix/phone
with an ARM based processor with 8MB of flash memory?

Of course, Free and Open Source Software is also about choice, and so it's
always good to give users the choices they would like. I shouldn't even have to
justify my own preference for running pd-vanilla to you, beyond saying "having
pd-vanilla is a useful feature for me, and I would appreciate it if it was
available to me as a choice."

"It works for me," is the worst kind of programmer mentality.

Chris.

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http://mccormick.cx