RE: Log4j as "Source-Code Level" or "Compiled (black-box) Component" Reuse?

[Mark Masterson <ma...@compuserve.com>]

John,

This seems to me like a valid question (1).  Obviously, I myself tend more
towards the black-box end of the spectrum.  While I think having the source
code is great, and often needed, what I really want to do is just *use* the
thing, out of the box.  My worry about modifying/extending the source code
has two reasons: 1) I'm a lousy programmer, so the lousy hacks I wind up
making to get the thing working the way I need it to are unlikely to be
accepted for inclusion in the "real" source, and 2) that means that each new
version is likely to break my app, and involve extra effort on my part to
get it working again.  Perhaps, in the worst case, so much extra effort,
that I would have been better off writing my own, lousy, but just-right for
my needs, package, and not using the open source product at all, despite its
higher quality overall.

All of which leads me to make the observation; if Open Source projects are
to become the normal paradigm in the future, then they need to be useful to
lousy programmers, and not just those programmers who are good enough to
improve or expand on the package.  That may sound a strange, and I've said
such things before, in other contexts, only to get flamed about "pandering
to the lowest common denominator."  So let me add, in attempt to fend some
of that off proactively, that I *am* the lowest common denominator, so I
naturally have a lot of sympathy for that viewpoint!  :-)

(1) But it would, wouldn't it?  :-)

Cheers,
Mark