Oh no, another 'me too' message...
Very well put, Sean.
I agree almost 100%. I would like to add a 3rd reason though, for someone
to withhold the source code on their freeware software - albeit temporarily.
That 3rd reason being: It isn't finished yet. If the software is still
'beta' or if I'm not finished developing it yet, or I haven't got all the
features in it I want. With PassGenR, and now my Wiccan Sabbats program, I
have made both available as soon as I had a working version, but I don't
want the source code 'out there' until I'm done developing it. With
PassGenR, when I decided I'd taken it as far as I wanted to, I then posted
the NTK source code. And when I feel Wiccan Sabbats is finished, I'll post
the source to that as well.
I suppose, if I am swamped at work and am unable to find the time to finish
it to the extent I'd like, then it would end up in this unenviable state of
being available in binary-only. Then I'd have to make the decision to 'give
up' on developing it and relenquish the source.
Anyways, I do agree, if it's freeware, then aside from the intellectual
property concerns, there's no reason not to release the source.
I was embarrased about the code for PassGenR at first, I'm sure there's a
better way to do it than I used, but what the heck. Someone asked me to
release the source, so when I was finished working on the project, that's
what I did.
-Stephanie
> I can only think of two reasons why someone would release freeware in
> binary distribution only. (1) intellectual property concerns -- maybe
> they licensed something from someone in order to do the job, or maybe
> they have a secret patented feature, or have some other valid reason to
> not reveal algorithmic details. That's perfectly fine. (2) They're
> embarrassed about their code. Hey, I've written sucky code as well.
> That's just not a good justification. Beyond that, there's little
> justification. Freeware Newton authors everywhere, I call on you to
> free your source code!
>
> Sean
-- This is the Newtontalk mailinglist - http://www.newtontalk.net To unsubscribe or manage: visit the above link or mailto:newtontalk-request_at_newtontalk.net?Subject=unsubscribe
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Fri Feb 01 2002 - 16:03:05 EST