TL;DR -- GitHub has May as Maintainers Month where Open Source folks get together and compare notes as well as party. We say, maintainers are of all sorts, including those working what might be called legacy stuff.
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Maintainers? Who are they? What have they to do with TGS, Inc. and Gardner theme?
Well, we are taking a technology focus. The NEHGS this month is touting how AI will change Genealogy. We say, wait a minute, folks. This stuff would work better if people knew what was going on under the covers. Right now, we have an uncertain situation due to choices by those pushing out this stuff.
Take GenAI, please. The EU (yes, our European cousins) as telling OpenAI that their ChatGPT-4 is not suitable for real stuff. Myself? I looked at the latest verison and failed it with two questions. I wrote of it somewhere (will try to find this). Actually, folks, The Atlantic had it right in 2022 when the first release came about: toy not tool.
Okay, the theme? We have had many post on technology. Some mentioned GitHub. So, that site is an example of handling code. What is involved with that? Well, code is developed. We can go into this but pass over it for now. When code is ready for use, it's executable plus there are copies of it in library form. That's the bailiwick of the likes of GitHub. One might say code management.
And, GitHub has May as Maintainer Month. In their version, the focus is on Open Source. That has become the norm where people keep a system/program going by offering their services, for free. Many of these people have jobs doing the same thing. John spent his career in code in a large variety of situations. "code maintenance" is important; its history is that the newbies get the task.
But, as systems mature, more and more talent/experience is needed in order to keep it running and up to date. On the other hand, development of new stuff may be exciting. For a while, as no major system ever gets easier as it comes into being. Now, maintainign something that you did may be more fun. But, it's not easier, necessarily.
So, we're nodding to code maintainers of all sorts. It'll be a necessary job now and into the future. Right now, "legacy" types are in serious needs of maintenance.
Wait, GenAI as removing the need for people? Think again. Those doing that sort of thing, managers wanting something for nothing, will pay the price. Too, their customers will be impacted. It's too bad that there is a lack of maturity. But, we have to agree on how these things ought to be run.
You know, GenAI is trained on code that has not been curated. Hence, errors are incorporated from the beginning. Let''s talk a realistic approach. Done right, it would go along the line of code "snippets" that John started doing long ago. As well, done right, we could track the history of major software and problems involved with such. That is, GenAI is a tool with insights that are artificial. It does not have insight which is the key deal.
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