The Three Prime Directives of open source software

Overview:
  Open source software offers computer users an array of desirable features, including access to free alternatives to expensive software they would normally purchase, the ability to manipulate, customise, contribute and improve on software projects and the ability to develop and release ones own software.  As a open source software developer, especially if developing ones own open source project, there are no explicit guidelines or quality regulations to follow.  So how do we determine when a software system reaches a high enough standard to be considered "high quality"? The answer, The three prime directives of open source software.  The following will elaborate on each of the three prime directives using a randomly chosen open source application.

   The victim: http://sourceforge.net/projects/pdfsam

"Easy to use tool to merge and split pdf documents"



Prime Directive #1: The system successfully acomplishes one successful task.

   After I was able to start PDF split and merge I decided to test the first prime directive by testing the programs ability to accomplish its title.  For this test I simply created a directory containing a single two page PDF file.  I started the program and selected my PDF using the GUI as depicted below.  

After clicking the run button, the blue bar below loaded to 100 %.  when I checked my directory I found:

  Manoa classes.pdf is the original, and the other two are the first and second pages of the PDF accordingly.  Given the success of this test I would conclude that PDF split and merge can preform one successful task and therefore satisfies prime directive one.. and in case you are wondering yes, it also merges just fine.



Prime Directive #2:  A new user can successfully install and use the program


  After downloading PDFsam I unzipped and placed all of the files in a directory on my desktop.  I then tried to launch the program, unsuccessfully at first, using the directions to start the program without having to use the command line.  In my second attempt I followed the instructions to launch the program from the command line, and it worked just fine. 

 Given this we can conclude that depending on the user of the software it could satisfy prime directive two, or it could fail. If the user is someone who has enough expertise to know about the command line, then they should have no trouble starting the program, on the other hand if a novice user tried to launch this software it is unlikely they would be successful.

 In order to test my previous claim I had my not so tec. savvy girlfriend attempt to start PDFsam, to which i got these exact responses:

"I have absolutely no Idea what I am doing"
"Could you explain to me again what I am suppose to be doing"
"Can I just start clicking things?"

Given this trial I would conclude that in fact PDFsam would FAIL prime directive 2.

** note: software deployed on ubuntu **


Prime Directive #3:  A new developer can successfully understand and enhance the system.


  The source code for PDFsam was relatively easy to find and acquire, I was able to find a download for the source code at the owners home site http://www.pdfsam.org/?page_id=32.  After exploring all of the source files for a while I came to the conclusion that this software would be somewhat difficult to manipulate, of the code I looked over the comments and readability of the code was somewhat poor.  I was unable to find a code snippet that was thoroughly explained.  Given this initial impression I believe I would be challenged to participate in the development of this software. It should also be noted that I am inexperienced when it comes to navigating and manipulating open source software at this point in my education, once I become more accustomed to the use of open source software my analysis of PDFsam in respect to prime directive #3 may change.