On Oct 22, 2010, at 1:06 PM, Arlin Stoltzfus wrote:
Hilmar, are you referring to various quick-and-dirty BioPerl modules, for instance, as cases in which software that ended up being reusable started out as part of a reusable software package?
Yes.
Are there other kinds of contexts where this would work? How could we get different developers working on the same architecture, building a shared foundation but creating different solutions from it?
I think I gave some examples in my other email. The key is that contributing be openly welcome, have very little barriers that aren't directly related to the code itself, and have an advantage for the developer. The advantage, for example, to adding on to BioPerl is that as a developer there's an awful lot of code I can easily reuse for all the mundane stuff, my code will be seen by and be useful to a lot more people, and I can be part of a community that I can learn from or exchange ideas with.
-hilmar