When to Fork and When to Spoon

[Shane Hathaway]

Hans Fugal wrote:
> So here's the two-part dilemna. First, his design will be harder to
> wrangle for my needs than a fresh design would be. So I'm faced with the
> technical decision to rewrite and cannibalize, or refactor. Second, I'd
> like to not fork but let this be a natural evolution of the code, but
> how do you tactfully send a guy a total refactoring of his code?
> Especially when his English and my Japanese aren't so good. OTOH
> how do you tactfully fork? 

Why not just explain to him your dilemma and ask him how he thinks you
should proceed?

Shane