[wp-hackers] Developing 1.6

[Matthew Thomas]

Podz wrote:
> 
>> It's not broken, but I think it's not nearly as intuitive as it could
>> be. It's reminiscent of Windows 3.1 -- massively popular for its time,
>> and a decent advance over the previous version, but there's still scope
>> for major improvement.
> 
> So this is when everyone is shifted to linux then ?

Unfortunately there's not yet any Free Software I could have used as an
analogy. As for Firefox, the poster boy for usable Free Software, its
original manifesto <http://blakeross.com/firefox/README-1.1.html> is
perhaps relevant to those clamouring for wider WordPress commit access.
The core developers took care to minimize the communication channels in
which people could argue against their changes, so that they could get
on with the coding. Perhaps the same is true of Shuttle.

>...
> I don't care for usability and all the other buzz words, neither do I
> code. I'm good at helping people pick up the pieces and what I do not
> want is to have to have an increase in the forums activity - we simply
> cannot withstand what is proposed without careful planning ahead of
> time. Few people here have a clue about how much work was put in by the
> people in #wordpress and on the forums when 1.5 was released.
>...

Unfortunately, until WordPress is used by the vast majority of people
who would ever want a Weblog (which will probably never happen), *any*
improvement to it probably will result in an increase in forum activity.
Not just because of people confused about the transition, but also
because the increase in user base will outweigh the long-term decrease
in puzzlement. So I don't think it's tenable for minimizing forum
activity to be the goal of WordPress development.

-- 
Matthew Thomas
http://mpt.net.nz/