Alan Gutierrez

One thing that I’ve come to allow myself in recent days, is this; Strata is designed to support the objectives of Memento.

No longer will I tell the reader to suppose, for example, that a Strata B+Tree is used to implement multi-version concurrency control, when offering up examples.

No. This implies that there are many other imagined uses.

Rather, I will ask the reader to keep in mind that Strata was designed to implement multi-version concurrency control. I will then offer up an example from Memento.

Other applications for this B+Tree data structure will be apparent to other people when it has been released, deployed, and proven.

An Honest Question

> How does your project compare to project X’s feature Y?

It is an honest question, people are looking for a point of reference. Answer the question. You do not need to provide an answer in the form of an implementation of feature Y.

When asked honestly, answer honestly in terms of problem statements and computing concepts, rather than feature comparisons. I’m not marketing a product, but making an open source contribution. Still, if were to consider my market, talking in terms of the code and concepts is going to appeal to the demographic of programmers who think about problems and implementations.

Someone else may come to understand the workings of Strata. They may suggest an implementation of some desirable functionality toward the goal of implementing a different application. That is open source.

More simply, someone may attempt to use Strata in their application, and come forward with a clearly defined problem, a request for feature that they will test and deploy, if a solution is available. That is open source.

A Dishonest Question

> How does your project compare to project X’s feature Y?

It can be a dishonest question.

There are times when I’ve encountered the feature matrix killjoy. They want to engage you in a comparison to a more mature project, or one that has at least published a feature matrix.

These conversations are combative, not collaborative. Implicit the question, what makes you think your project is better than project Y?

The answer is, I don’t know about project X. I have no use for feature Y. I have generously provided the source code under an OSI approved license. You have the source. Please feel free to investigate this question for yourself.

Picture Infinity

It is a pity, a failure point, that when I’ve encountered this attitude, I’ve let it guide me.

I childishly follow every tangent. It has felt compulsive when I so follow. I childishly approach every trade-off as if there were some as of yet undiscovered algorithm that would eliminate compromise. It has felt obsessive when I so approach. It makes me worry about myself.

How refreshing to realize that pathology is not necessary. (For this I owe you, my fellow New Orleanians, for consistently perceiving weaknesses as human.)

It is my sometimes charming (though more often not) character defect, to seek universal approval. It is yet another manifestation. One of many.

Software cannot have universal approval. Software is discrete. Trade-offs are inherent.

It is such a hard truth, that even I will have to come to accept it.

Software may yet save me from myself, once again.