Re: request to ban 'no source' contributions
spent memory wrote:
>
> the whole purpose of the release of VE was to benefit people who don't
> want to type the same code over and over, not to start a open source
> vs compiled code debate. i wonder if david cuny, and judith experienced
> this sort of backlash when trying to release a beneficial tool into
> the euphoria
> community
>
And it's a good idea (what VE is trying to do). I've thought of doing
something similar myself. I'm not sure what backlash you're referring
to. What I saw here was that someone tried your program, but it didn't
work on his machine. He let you know, and also wondered aloud about why
there was no source. You got angry, attacked him, then reread (or
finished reading?) his post, and apologized. I chimed in to let you know
how the archives are generally viewed around here (I've been a part of
the Euphoria community for about 6 years now). Some other people
debated the merits of releasing source code and alternatives to releasing
stuff at RDS' site. Thread wandering is just part of internet culture,
not to mention general communication.
Most things that get released are basically ignored. A few people might
try them out, and then forget about them. The things that are really
useful to many people tend to live on. The only closed source contribution
that I can recall off the top of my head is EuWinGUI by Andrea Cini. Lots
of people liked this (it was based on a shareware C++ lib that she had
written), but she left the Euphorian fold, so it's no longer being
developed (others have alluded to this phenomenon). I think it's also
not being used as much as it was while she was around (I could be wrong).
Another closed source contribution that I think had lots of potential was
Pete's print preview library. I was interested in putting that into EDB,
but the licensing wasn't compatible with what I wanted to do (and frankly,
it was difficult figuring out how it all worked). I guess this sounds
selfish, but had Pete released it under a more open license, I would
have likely included it, and would have devoted significant micro
economy dollars. There are several other libs that I used in EDB in
that manner.
One thing all long lived contributions have in common, is that the users
find lots of things wrong with them, and ask for lots of bug fixes and
new features (not always in the most polite fashion). Many users write
the code themselves and submit them to the author, who is free
to ignore the suggestions. Occaisionally, a fork of a project survives
for some time, but the two usually converge after a while.
Matt Lewis
PS Please hit the Quote Original Text button (assuming you're using
the web interface). In a non-threaded forum like this, it can be
difficult to figure out who/what you're replying to.
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