Imprudence:Development Process

The development process and strategy for Imprudence will almost certainly shift and be adjusted over time as the situation evolves, but this page describes the current vision for that process.

A Volunteer Effort
Obviously, because Imprudence depends on volunteer effort, it's impossible to dictate what aspects of the viewer any person will work on. The Imprudence project leads can put forward and recommend a specific focus, but ultimately it is up to each individual developer or designer to step up and work on the parts of the viewer that he or she considers most important.

The Wishlist
We are keeping a wishlist of features, improvements, and bug fixes that would improve usability (or, in a few cases, would just be really nice to have). There are three important things to understand about that list:


 * 1) The wishlist is open and unofficial. Anyone can add items to the wishlist. For this reason, do not assume that everything on the wishlist is endorsed or recommended by the Imprudence project leads.
 * 2) The wishlist is not a roadmap. Not everything on the wishlist will get done, nor do we plan on getting them all done. Rather, the idea is to present a wide variety of ideas and let volunteers choose which ones they want to work on.
 * 3) The wishlist is not comprehensive. It merely serves as inspiration and a focal point for development efforts. There are a lot of worthy goals that are not on that list. Volunteers are encouraged to work on things they feel strongly about, even if those things are not listed.

Advocates
Although volunteers are free to work on whatever aspects they wish, ideas with a lot of popular support are more likely to attract the attention of volunteers. So, even people who are not designers or developers can play an important role in influencing the development of Imprudence, by advocating for issues (either issues on the wishlist or their own ideas).

Imprudence does not (at this time) have a formal system for voting on an issue, like Linden Lab has on their JIRA. Instead, advocates should create a forum thread (if one doesn't already exist) for supporters (and opponents) of the issue to discuss and express their opinions on it. Add a link on the wishlist pointing to the forum thread, so that others can easily locate it. Advocates are encouraged to blog, tweet, plurk, and otherwise spread the word about issues they support.

Keep in mind that the point of the forum thread is to convince developers and designers that an issue is an especially important and worthwhile one. Sheer number of supporters is a factor in that, but a few solid and persuasive arguments for the issue can be even more convincing.