crunch@well.UUCP (John Draper) (10/26/85)
Hello everyone:
I am coming along great with the sprite editor. I am going to post
the source up here. I will might not be able to post it before Nov 1st,
but I will try. I might want to decide to add one more feature to it.
I am doing this for several reasons; They are:
1. Not enough good workable example programs for the Amiga, and this would
assist others in coming up to speed.
2. The Amiga development system lacks good tools, and this is my first
contribution towards getting adequate tools out there for the Amiga.
3. This would encourage others to post USEFUL, I repeat ***USEFUL*** programs
that can assist other programmers and developers. REMEMBER Folks, Amiga
could be in trouble if there is little software available for it. And
besides, (a very big cheshire cat GRIN), it **IS** better than the IBM,
right??? (a bigger silly grin).
4. I am NOT a greedy person, paranoid about giving the compitition the
edge. Instead, I want to encourage other developers and users to
help spread around useful programs and tools.
So, I am going to be compiling a list of useful software development tools
and am going to need everyones help. So, whenever you come across with
some useful development tool, just mail it in. I will gather your entrys
and post them later in a summary to help keep net traffic down.
I mean, (grin), we can DREAM!!! right???, then encourage other BIX
programmers to get involved in little pieces of tools. Then everyone can
HACK UP these tools into other tools. This is Exactly
whats happening now on the Programmers Network. People make initial contact,
then use private mail to work on projects, thus not cluttering up the
conference with info thats useful to only a few members. Also, the
Programmers Network has set up a common library where the MASTER SOURCE
is posted. Hackers can then scoop up the source, add a few goodies, then
after checking with the origional author, giving him a chance to compile the
source (Sent to him via "mail"). The origional programmer would be the
"Keeper of the source", and be responsible for insuring that hackers use
plenty of comments and documentation of the added features.
The permissions of the source file should be writable ONLY by the Keeper
of the source.
I will try to get the source for the sprite editor on the net within a Week,
but PLEASE don't hold me to it. I also welcome comments on my suggested ideas
about the "Keeper of the source" concept, and how to improve it.
As project manager of EasyWriter Program, at one time, we had 5 people
working on the program which was written in FORTH, but after using the
"Keeper of the Source" concept, I was able to smooth out the project.
FORTH, isn't the language to be using when more than one programmer is
working on a project, I am speaking from experience.
So lets really start up group projects (small ones), where people can
work on tools in a group. If anyone wants to know how to do this, I can
be a good guide. This is exactly what the Programmers Network is all about.
Check out the WELL, if you can!!, it's easy to join, and you won't be
PUNISHED for using 1200 baud. The Programmers Network is there. The real key
to Networking Projects is that NOBODY is obligated, or committed.
It's strictly volunteer!!. If you are a hot-shot programmer just finished
with a phase of your work, and want to lend a hand, just download the
source, hack it up, then mail it to the "Keeper". Lets try this!!
You will be surprised with the results.jef@lbl-rtsg.arpa (10/28/85)
From: jef@lbl-rtsg.arpa >From: well!crunch@caip.rutgers.edu (John Draper) >Check out the WELL, if you can!!, it's easy to join Hey Captain, I don't suppose you'd care to tell us HOW to join the Well? By the way, I can add an emphatic second to your recommendation of the "Keeper of the Source" concept. I've used similar methods twice now: here at LBL in a group of about ten people, and at Xerox on a network of over 5000. In both cases large quantities of high-quality hacks were produced, on a completely volunteer basis. In fact, at Xerox the corpus of hacks got to be valuable enough that some lawyer decided to steal it out from under us, but that's another story. --- Jef