Eric has already covered the vi-specific aspects of this issue, so I'd just
like to underscore the Bazaar side of things.
People always prefer to code features that:
- they personally feel passionate about,
- they find easy to code, and/or
- they find challenging to code
As an Open Source project, we like to encourage this behavior. :-) The
very *last* thing I want to do is chase away people who are coding features
that are low on my personal priority list. If the code's done well enough
and doesn't distort the overall product, I want it. Period.
That having been said, not all features are created equal.
There's a sweet spot in the adoption curve for this project that we haven't
quite hit yet. This project becomes more and more successful as we head
towards critical mass, because the more developers and users we have, the
more eyes we have on the product to make it better for all of us.
So, I'd like to actively encourage anyone with time to spend coding to
*also* take a look at the unclaimed features on the roadmap and think about
which ones are more likely to get *other* people to use the product.
For example, there are a lot of easy dialogs on the 0.9 list which could be
snuck in earlier if anyone had time to do the work. I'd also be surprised
if the folks who've started tackling bigger projects (like the various
importers and exporters, or the BeOS and Mac ports) are turning down offers
of help.
Hint, hint. :-)
Paul
PS: I've also seen several posts from people who sound willing to code but
are worried they don't know enough C++ to help. Trust me, we try very hard
to keep our usage of C++ to a small, highly-portable subset. If you're very
comfortable with C and that's your only obstacle, let us know what feature
you're interested in and we'll point you at the relevant code so you can see
for yourself whether it's really that bad.
You might be surprised.
PPS: Ditto for folks who might think cross-platform issues are an
obstacle.