Virm wrote:
I do apologize for the venom that may be in this message, Gregz, but I found your post rather distateful and felt I could not remain silent. My apologies to all involved for any offense caused (I'm sure there will be some).
-Virm
No offense taken, although I completely disagree with you for the reasons I mentioned above. A private project is something you do with your ethernet cable unplugged. It's between you and your PC. This website, list of features, forums etc. has provoked great interest in thousands of passers-by over the years, and to stir up that much sentiment without at least delivering a codebase for fans to work with is narcissistic and irresponsible.
Implode wrote:gregz wrote:We're glad to see you back, but have you considered opening the code base?
Of course I have, but how would this work? Just throw it out there to everyone? That would include people who are likely to do more damage than good. Believe me if the code was in a good stable state, it wouldn't be taking me so long to sort it out (and my mostly lack of enthusiasm to do so). If I thought I could open it out to everyone and that would magically get it finished, of course I would. So sure, give me your suggestions on this.
...
You'd prefer I just took the site down? Sure I can do that too, if that would help.
I worked at a software shop where one guy had written approximately 95% of the codebase for our product. There was literally zero documentation. He used variables that were up to 80 characters long describing what they stored, same with functions etc. Needless to say he had a very secure position for himself at the company because noone could figure out how his code worked.
I'm not saying he did that on purpose, he was a smart guy and he wasn't greedy etc., it's just how he worked. Based on how things are here I'm assuming (assuming) the situation is similar. There is one difference however.
Some programmers are simply brilliant beyond description. One of them might be browsing your forums some day. If you open the source, he could look at it without any barriers of permission or inconvenience. That special individual could take a glance at your code, figure it out, and release a 'patched' code-base
back to you, and everyone else, which might then trivialize the process of closing whatever bugs, or features remain tackling. You've cited lack of personal enthusiasm and an unstable code-base, there's nothing wrong with that, so why not see if someone can help you out? It's a situation in which you have nothing to lose, and everything to gain. If said developer adds a feature you don't like, you can always remove it from the probably cleaner, more readable, and more stable code-base. I personally can't find any justifiable reason whatsoever for keeping the source locked up and out of sight as I assume you have no commercial interest in this project.
If you want to be petulant then sure, shut down the site.
Or you could add another discussion block called 'Code Base' with a sticky to download links, and a discussion area for developer collaboration. Making those changes shouldn't take more than an afternoon.
That is the right thing to do.
