FSFE and promoting software quality

[Bernhard E. Reiter]

Hello,

Am Donnerstag, 18. Februar 2021, 09:26:26 CET schrieb Vitaly Repin:
[GNU coding standards]

> Why not to promote them instead of inventing the wheel with FSFE
> standards? 

As just I did, the GNU coding standards are still a good read for Free 
Software initiatives developing in C and C++. And even for other languages
to see the conventions as inspiration.

This discussion is just about a suggestion and it makes sense to discuss if 
other coding guidelines could be useful. Of course if we were to promote
coding standards, I'd say we would only try to supplement those which are well 
done already, like the GNU coding standards. 

> (And without having any "GNU"-like project being run by FSFE?).

In my opinion - in a strict sense - the GNU project is successfully concluded,
as the original project goals have been reaching in major points.
And then it can be replaced with specific technological initiatives.
FSFE had some smaller technical initiatives in the past (like the technical 
part on the freepdfreader and free your android campaigns) and we'd probably 
start and follow technical initiatives in the future.

> > Again our sister has some nice awards: https://www.fsf.org/awards
> 
> Yep. Why not to have European awards also?

The FSF awards are global, they even were presented in Europe a few times.
We had a document freedom award for many years, to go in the direction of open 
standards. Again, we should see what fits Europe and where is something 
missing in the world of Free Software (and of course, do we have the 
volunteers and the interests to keep this alive for many years, not just 
once.)

> Yep. I think that we can contribute by cooperation with established
> educational organisations and by organizing event with focus on 
> free software in general and software quality dimension in particular.

There has been some cooperation in the past (I'll have to look it up),
this is why I know that it is not easy and a wide field. For most people, the 
quality aspect of software development is not what they are interested in 
initially. And in general higher quality means defining it, measuring it and 
funding it and overal in IT this is often not happening. It feels like in this 
field we are trying to get the basics right. My idea is more along the lines 
to teach and enlight people about the specific quality aspects that a nice 
Free Software and community development can contribute to IT.

Best Regards,
Bernhard
-- 
FSFE -- Gründungsmitglied der Vollversammmlung    blogs.fsfe.org/bernhard
Unterstütze Freie Software:  https://www.fsfe.org/support/support.de.html
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