>
> As I understand it, as a user of open source software (such as
> Firefox and OpenOffice), this is not a problem because there is
> version control and measures are taken to ensure to code does not
> "fork" into different and potentially incompatible versions.
>
> --
> Anzir Boodoo
I think that this is the point. To maintain consistency and ease of use of
the user-interface as well as to maintain the validity of the code requires
investment of time and effort. Commercial organisations put this investment
in because by making use of a large number of unpaid enthusiasts they get
benefit of the occasional good idea and innovation. I suspect that the
lion's share of hacker code is just thrown away. In addition they take
advantage of a kind of 'ideological' brand - the open source movement -
which is a powerful loyalty marketing device and against which their most
powerful competition (eg. Microsoft) cannot compete.
The point is that there is no such thing as a free lunch.
Now this is fine for a web-browser, or a wordprocessor, or even for a GIS.
These are applications which work or don't work in a very obvious way. I
type a weblink into Firefox and either I get to the webpage and it displays,
or I don't. The mess the hacker makes of the code will be pretty obvious if
it matters. But take Sheep's example of analytic software. Here the whole
point of opening up the source is to allow people to try out entirely new
things where by definition one doesn't know what a 'correct' result will
look like. Certainly the individual with the new idea might, but if they get
it wrong would it be possible for a centralised 'version control' vetting
group to know? I suspect not without a serious layer of meta data associated
with code stating what the intention was in very precise terms, and then a
large investment of time and effort on the part of that group to validate
the code and - a point I have made before - the empirical usefulness of the
idea itself in helping to explain anything about the way the world works.
Taken all in all, I wonder whether the open source model works for this kind
of analytic software development - there must be examples from other fields
of science. Does anyone know of them?
Alan
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