Is there anything *enjoyable* about our development process?

[Chris Shoemaker]

I recently came across (via /.) a brief 1-page article titled "-Ofun":
http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/7996. I agree with the author's
thesis, which is that optimizing a project's development process for
the pleasure of developers leads to all sorts of good things.

As applied to GnuCash, I would make a stronger assertion, though.  I
believe that GnuCash's continued progress and relavence, absolutely
*depends* on a drastic revamping of the development process.
Fortunately, I don't think this will require much innovation.  We can
simply emulate the many projects that are thriving, attracting new
developers, etc.  However, I do think it will require a lot of
initiative on our part.

Does anyone agree?

If so, I'd like to start discussing what concrete things we can do to
improve the whole developement experience, considering ideas from the
article and elsewhere.

E.g. Would a modern version-control system improve the development
experience?  (It seems like several of the other recommedations in the
article depend on it.)

-chris