[josm-dev] Refactoring of the JOSM architecture vs. Plugins

[Gervase Markham]

Martijn van Oosterhout wrote:
> In my opinion it is extremely bad form for your first email about a
> project to be "let's refactor the codebase". 

Can you quote an example of where someone has actually done that? (As
opposed to, say, "I tried to implement this feature but I found it
really difficult. Has anyone considered refactoring? I'm happy to help.")

> It's a form of disrespect
> for everything that has been done already. 

No more so than any other message which says "This thing about JOSM is
sub-optimal - let's make it better."

> By all means send your
> patches but they better be for features and not just refactoring
> because you think it looks nicer.

Why does this idea persist? _Who_ has come along and argued for
refactoring "because it looks nicer"?

Caricaturing those who disagree with you is not a good way to have a
discussion.

Gerv