Why Should I Care What Color the Bikeshed Is?

kazinator

Here is the thing. If you have a Convention Manual which calls for a certain color for bike sheds, then you use that. Failing that, if you have several other bike sheds of a certain color, then that's what you use, for consistency with existing bike sheds.

The color of the bike shed only doesn't matter if it's the only bike shed, and there is no documentation which has already settled the matter.

aunty_helen

Wouldn't you change the color if there's existing bike sheds of the same? So you can reference them by color.

wgjordan

See also a rebuttal of sorts [1] from Brett Glass, the sole programmer singled out by name in phk's essay:

> Poul-Henning's assertion that all such ideas should be dismissed as "bikeshedding" reflects this dismissive attitude, which can be just as damaging to a software project as taking too many suggestions (or accepting bad ones). At the time of the discussion I mention above, internal squabbles drove several talented programmers from the project, and I was discouraged from becoming more deeply involved in it. FreeBSD was falling behind Linux in features and in popularity. While it has now caught up in terms of technology, it remains an underdog. This is, in part, due to the developers' dismissal as "bikeshedding" of good ideas that Linux adopted much earlier.

[1] http://bikeshed.info/

azundo

I feel like I'm missing the context of the sleep(1) debate and reading both points of view they seem like they're arguing for the same side? Would love for someone to cleanly explain both sides to this as I clearly don't quite get it.

anonymous908213

Grabbing that domain, they must have quite an axe to grind. Not that the attack on them was any less childish.

kfogel

We are happy to be providing this public service :-). I wish the term were better known outside tech; it's useful in so many contexts.

hoofedear

“Bikeshedding” is one of my favorite terms I’ve learned since becoming a programmer :)

squidgyhead

I write code and also cycle. I built a bike shed in my back yard. It has become quite difficult to search for advice on how to actually build a bike shed.

dghlsakjg

Enlighten us!

What differentiates a good shed from a bike shed?

neilv

Let's crowdsource that question on HN.

lostlogin

> What differentiates a good shed from a bike shed?

If my bike is there when I go to it.

darth_avocado

This article has been shared at least 10 times before on HN over the last decade. Amazing to see people organically find it over the years.

nanodeath

Including this one, 34 times :')

wavemode

(1999)