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Kdenlive Developer Jean-Baptiste Mardelle Has Been Found

Posted by timothy on from the just-in-time-for-the-solstice dept.

jones_supa writes "A month ago there was worry about Kdenlive main developer being missing. Good news guys, Jean-Baptiste Mardelle has been finally reached and is doing fine. In a new mailing list post by Vincent Pinon, he says he managed to find Mardelle's phone number and contacted the longtime KDE developer. It was found out that Mardelle took a break over the summer but then lost motivation in Kdenlive under the burden of the ongoing refactoring of the code. Pinon agreed that there are 'so many things to redo almost from scratch just to get the 'old' functionalities'. The full story can be read from the kdenlive-devel mailing list. After talking with Jean-Baptiste, Vincent has called upon individual developers interested in Kdenlive to come forward. Among the actions called for is putting the Git master code-base back in order, ensuring the code is in good quality, provide new communication about the project, integrate new features like GPU-powered effects and a Qt5 port, and progressively integrate the new Kdenlive design."

7 of 85 comments (clear)

  1. Classic... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    An open source project stuck in "refactoring hell". Seems to have happened to Inkscape too. Such a waste.

    Heavily refactoring projects of this size rarely brings any benefit for the users, it's just technical masturbation. If you're lucky, you will after a few years end up with a project that does the same things as before, most likely it will have acquired some bugs as icing on the cake.

    Taking a few years to refactor your project might sound like a good idea at first, but chances are, you won't even be relevant anymore by the time you're done.

    Some open source projects would benefit from proper managers who can stop them from shooting themselves in the foot.

    1. Re:Classic... by d33tah · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You forgot that refactoring might decrease the maintenance costs. It's possible that the developer just found it too hard to add any new functionality to the existing codebase and figured that refactoring is the only way to go. Seriously, it's not always enough for a project to work. Actually, it usually isn't.

    2. Re:Classic... by dmbasso · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I just want to point out one counterexample: Blender. The work done in the 2.5 version was huge, but it allowed lots of improvements later. Totally worth it.

      --
      `echo $[0x853204FA81]|tr 0-9 ionbsdeaml`@gmail.com
    3. Re:Classic... by d33tah · · Score: 5, Insightful

      There's no such thing as proper architecture at the first try. By programming, you explore the problems you have to face. In "The Mythical Man-Month", Fred Brooks says that it's not first or second system that is correctly design, but usually the third. Rewriting is a part of a process.

  2. I dunno... by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 4, Funny

    Sometimes when a girlfriend or wife stops speaking to you, you count your blessings and leave well enough alone.

    --
    #DeleteChrome
  3. Re:girlfriend stops speaking to you... by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 4, Insightful

    When this was last a Slashdot "story" somebody said, "he's probably busy - here's his phone #, why doesn't somebody give him a call?" So, somebody did that and we get another "story".

    The real "story" here is that a lead developer gave up on a project and left without communicating. Perhaps there's a good lesson here about Open Source project governance that.

    --
    My God, it's Full of Source!
    OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
  4. Software Developer Feared To Be Dead by Ukab+the+Great · · Score: 4, Funny

    Found alive having a life. More news at a 11.