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From: "Bjorn Gustavsson" <bjonr@irf.se>
Newsgroups: comp.soft-sys.matlab
Subject: Re: What is the model for the File Exchange?
Date: Tue, 7 Apr 2009 09:04:01 +0000 (UTC)
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Just a few small comments...

"Helen Chen" <helen.chen@mathworks.com> wrote in message <gr33oc$31u$1@fred.mathworks.com>...
> Thanks Ned, there are some very good thoughts here. I'll add a couple of thoughts that 
> come to mind: 
> 
> Ned > For these reasons, we believe it's appropriate and important to move the File 
> Exchange in the direction of inclusivity with outbound filters. That doesn't mean we think 
> everything is perfect now. We believe that there is a lot we can do to improve the 
> filtering so that you don't see files that you don't care to see. But we believe that there is 
> room enough for everyone to contribute, so long as the code runs, is not malicious, and 
> is offered in good faith. The tent is big, and civility matters. By working with, rather than
> rejecting outright, the work of naive newcomers, we can help them grow into pillars of
> this community. Keep in mind the people behind the code. We all started somewhere,
> and everyone is on their own trajectory of learning.
>
I still remember when I found the FEX, it was a great source of tools that helped me shortcut months of work and reading in providing code solving problems I needed to solve. 

I remember that before writing functions for doing this that or the other, I took a quick look at the FEX to see if there already was some tool already there. Often there was, and another week of toil was replaced with a quick download and a coffee break.

I also remember the trepidation and care I took before uploading my first contribution, making sure that the functions I supplied wasn't available and working. 

I still fail to understand what anyone can benefit from the umpteenth Gaussian elimination or whatever already exists in piles. That time would be better spent by the author writing something not yet available. When I found that some of what I'd done was useful to me, and not available at the FEX, I figured that it might be useful to someone else too. 
> 
> HC> Sometimes we find that community contributions can create value in many different
> ways. In the exclusive model, everything is perfect and can be used as is.  
> 
> However, sometimes submissions can provide value in another way - look at the
> submissions that inspired others to create new submission. I think those are really great
> too.  I've heard from many developers that although a solution didn't provide an exact
> solution, it was food for thought or starting code down the path to the correct solution. 
> This is good too - we are evolving the code base. (But don't forget to share your new
> creations with others too! You could have created a solution or inspiration for another 
> community member.) 
>
This sounds good. I'd appreciate if you could  expand a little on for example how the different Savitsky-Golay (sp?) filters available are all useful in this regards.
>
> Ned > Help us design an interface that make the use of the site more pleasant. Tell us 
> your preferred mental model of the File Exchange. But please try to recognize there is
> room enough for many kinds of contributions.
> 
Since you obviously take your time to inform the authors of comments that and why their comment will be removed, I request that you:
When "yet another function" for something that already exists in one or several contributions, require the author to explain the difference between his/her and the others. This explanation should then go into the file description.

This would be a most helpful way to guide a newcomer to the good practice of searching for tools at the FEX, learning from code available, and contributing with useful new tools.

USEFUL is the keyword. The n-th Gaussian elimination script is hardly useful in any way.

My firm opinions.