From: Robert Tweed <robert_at_killingmoon.com>
Date: Tue, 20 Aug 2002 02:02:56 +0100

----- Original Message -----
From: "Eric Linenberg" <elinenbe_at_umich.edu>


> I too agree. The more options the better. I don't hear anyone
> complaining about too many options.

I've already done so once, and I'll briefly state the reason again. If there
are a huge number of mostly unnecessary options added, we get "bloatware",
much like Microsoft office (90% of users only use 10% of the options). That
results in something that is too big to efficiently do what it was
supposedly designed to do, instead of a small, lean, efficient tool.

Evefy time we add another option, we increase the binary size, and increase
the complexity of the UI; neither of which is a good thing. Obviously, if
this is balanced by a *genuinely useful* option, then it is worth adding. If
not, someone needs to make the decision to drop the option completely.

I want Rockbox to do everything it is supposed to do, do it well, and do
some other cool things that are *useful* (I include the games, BTW, because
I think it's good to have them for when you are stuck in a lift, or
whatever...) I don't want to see hundreds of options that no-one ever uses
and very few people even remember what they do. This is one major problem
with open source stuff; one that hopefully we will avoid.

- Robert
Received on 2002-08-20