今天朋友雨苍为我分享了一个新闻链接，说的是一位ALS患者在生命走到尽头前用脚贡献了最后一个代码补丁，修正了GNOME中一个存在了9年的BUG。
ALS是肌肉萎缩性侧索硬化症，是一种渐进和致命的神经退行性疾病，病人的肌肉会逐渐衰弱、萎缩，丧失运动能力。上面这位，Adrian Hands就是一位ALS病人，他在已经失去了运动能力、双手残废无法使用键盘的情况下，用脚在一个莫尔斯码键盘模拟器上编写代码，为GNOME提交了生命中最后一个patch。
以下是他的儿子Ian Hands在GNOME的邮件列表里的一段话
I would like to extend my thanks to the gnome team/community for a great last moment with my dad. Adrian Hands (my father) wrote the patch above to improve the usability of gnome for himself and others. You see my dad was suffering from ALS and his hands were so crippled he could no longer use a keyboard. Thus we used a Darci usb morse code keyboard emulator to help him type. Even the morse code device was a struggle as the sensitivity adjustment and positioning of the nice two paddled key would fall out of whack. I rigged up a pvc cage that wrapped around his knee and fixed remote switches to the cage so that he could use the remaining strength in his legs to operate the Darci morse code device. He used this last bit of body movement to write this patch. Here is a photo of him using it: https://picasaweb.google.com/HandsAdrian/ShotwellConnect#5549467460761802914 My father passed away yesterday. I went back through my email to find our last correspondence (he was in India for treatment, and I live in Raleigh). I would like to share the email with you.<email> On Sun, Jan 30, 2011 at 12:16 PM, Adrian Hands <[email protected]> wrote: > ACCEPTed > COMMITed > RESOLVEd > BOO-YAH! > > commit 0b209b1ff16e863e60a1d86413aa57c5fbde76b0 > Author: Adrian Hands <[email protected]> > Date: Fri Dec 31 14:34:58 2010 +0100 > > Add Copy Image and Copy Path to clipboard functionality > > Fixes bug 78514. > > data/eog-ui.xml | 9 +++++++ > src/eog-window.c | 63 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ > 2 files changed, 72 insertions(+), 0 deletions(-) I have the coolest Dad in the world! </email> I am so glad that my last comment to my Dad was something like this. Adrian Hands loved free software / open source. I do as well. Thanks so much for the great software, and a new great memory.
我总是很感激生命中总是一直存在着这样伟大的人创造着一个又一个励志故事和事迹，他们存在于各行各业，有的并不出名，但是还是能感动到我，激励到我，有志者，事竟成！
特地写此文纪念这位伟大的程序员，Adrian Hands，R.I.P。