Keith Devens .com

Interview with GvR

Via the Daily Python-URL, a neat interview with Guido van Rossum at onlamp.com. Nothing all that new, but I found this bit interesting:

Our CTO, Jim Fulton, has introduced a very interesting innovation called a "sprint." A number of programmers, some more experienced, some less, get together for a few days for an intensive programming session, typically using pair-programming, Extreme-Programming style.

Sprint participants are both company employees and non-employees interested in participating in the development of the open source Zope codebase. At the end of the sprint, we usually have a significant new piece of working code with unit tests, the less experienced programmers have learned a lot, and we have a few new contributors to the Zope project. This process has really reinvigorated the Zope development process.

Which brings me to another lesson from open source, from my colleague Tim Peters. Tim says this is so important to him now that he'll never go back to working for a closed-source company. The lesson is that an open source development process breeds very loyal employees.

In a typical closed-source company, programmers often develop large amounts of code to which they develop personal attachment. But when projects get canceled, companies are restructured, and management changes, they often lose access to their own code, which is de-motivating. Having your source code out there in the open is a real motivator to have pride in your code and keep improving it.

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