open source

When it’s going well, software development can be as enjoyable and straightforward as building a model from LEGO bricks: you have an idea or a goal in mind, and you begin to scour through the available components to put together the intended result. If you’re lucky, you find detailed instructions – requirements and documentation – to help you along your way. Meanwhile, one of the reasons that open source software has become so successful over the past few decades is that different software developers are frequently looking for components that match similar requirements when they’re building systems. …