Recent

Author Topic: I hate to play the "Devils Advocate", but.....  (Read 10660 times)

jwdietrich

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1232
    • formatio reticularis
Re: I hate to play the "Devils Advocate", but.....
« Reply #15 on: January 17, 2016, 08:54:55 pm »
Free Software is an interesting model of spontaneous order, in the way David Hume understood it. You might want to read the excellent article "The philosophy of free software" at techradar.

To summarize the main idea: If there is a "market" for an exotic platform it will probably be supported (there is even an incomplete port of FPC for IBM mainframe computers). If you see a market for improving RTL and FCL you could invest time or money to get this job done. The Bounties page in the wiki is a good place,
« Last Edit: January 17, 2016, 08:58:20 pm by jwdietrich »
function GetRandomNumber: integer; // xkcd.com
begin
  GetRandomNumber := 4; // chosen by fair dice roll. Guaranteed to be random.
end;

http://www.formatio-reticularis.de

Lazarus 2.2.6 | FPC 3.2.2 | PPC, Intel, ARM | macOS, Windows, Linux

skalogryz

  • Global Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2770
    • havefunsoft.com
Re: I hate to play the "Devils Advocate", but.....
« Reply #16 on: January 18, 2016, 01:25:19 am »
Free Software is an interesting model of spontaneous order, in the way David Hume understood it. You might want to read the excellent article "The philosophy of free software" at techradar.
Ugh. a few points on "Spontaneous order":
* a lot of "free software" projects are managed by big foundations/corporations. So it's hard for me to agree that for these projects the order is really spontaneous. These projects have to compete with commercial counterparts.
* "the developers, not wanting to write software that's not going to be used by anyone, may well also look elsewhere for new projects to work on that people will find more useful." - or they can keep (and keep and keep) working on the same project, trying to improve it and compete with other (price signaled) projects. Arbeit macht frei ?

Imho, "free software" needs to be more honest about involvement into commercial aspect of development.
Yes, it might be a passion, that drives a developer into a "free software" project, but on the longer scope,  there has too be an actual monetary support for that. And that eventually makes "spontaneous order" less significant, that it seems to be shown in the article.

jwdietrich

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1232
    • formatio reticularis
Re: I hate to play the "Devils Advocate", but.....
« Reply #17 on: January 18, 2016, 01:31:32 am »
@skalogryz: This has to do with the subtle difference between "free software" and "open source software".
function GetRandomNumber: integer; // xkcd.com
begin
  GetRandomNumber := 4; // chosen by fair dice roll. Guaranteed to be random.
end;

http://www.formatio-reticularis.de

Lazarus 2.2.6 | FPC 3.2.2 | PPC, Intel, ARM | macOS, Windows, Linux

Graeme

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1428
    • Graeme on the web
Re: I hate to play the "Devils Advocate", but.....
« Reply #18 on: January 18, 2016, 01:50:50 am »
Wouldn't FPC be significantly "farther-along" development wise if the dev team spent more time improving the RTL and FCL, and less time making the compiler work on ludicrously obscure architectures that no one uses?
Simple, because somebody needs it. ALL the targets that FPC officially supports are used by somebody and has a dedicated maintainer.

Quote
I mean, for example, I challenge anyone to tell me with a straight face that targeting OS/2 (which has been ENTIRELY deprecated since at least 2001) is a worthwhile endeavor in the year 2016.
Next time do your research before you make such bold statements. ;D  OS/2 might not be supported or developed by IBM any more (at least not publicly, but at a price they will and still do), but eComStation does still sell and support a much improved OS/2. Also in mid 2015 IBM licensed OS/2 to a second company that will be making there own improvements to OS/2 and they plan on releasing the fist version in Q4 2016.

  http://www.osnews.com/story/28933/Blue_Lion_new_OS_2_distribution_due_2016
--
fpGUI Toolkit - a cross-platform GUI toolkit using Free Pascal
http://fpgui.sourceforge.net/

Graeme

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1428
    • Graeme on the web
Re: I hate to play the "Devils Advocate", but.....
« Reply #19 on: January 18, 2016, 01:56:29 am »
Why not just target Windows, Linux, Mac, iPhone, Android, maybe Raspberry Pi, and be done with it?
You might only use those platforms, but others use different platforms. eg: What is not mentioned in your list is my primary day-to-day operating sysstem - FreeBSD. This is just one example.

Also not all FPC developers work on all parts of the Free Pascal project. Each developer in the Free Pascal project has a specialised area they work on or maintain a specific platform. Some work on the compiler itself, some in the RTL, some in the FCL, some only on platform specific code etc.
--
fpGUI Toolkit - a cross-platform GUI toolkit using Free Pascal
http://fpgui.sourceforge.net/

Akira1364

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 561
Re: I hate to play the "Devils Advocate", but.....
« Reply #20 on: January 18, 2016, 02:38:50 am »
I actually just use Windows. And FreeBSD I was sort of mentally filing in the "Linux/Unix/e.t.c" drawer. My initial post was more directed at the objectively outdated obscure  platforms like Gameboy Advance, e.t.c.... Also by no means was I trying to give a definitive list of what platforms FPC should support, they were moreso just "common"  examples.

skalogryz

  • Global Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2770
    • havefunsoft.com
Re: I hate to play the "Devils Advocate", but.....
« Reply #21 on: January 18, 2016, 03:02:35 am »
@skalogryz: This has to do with the subtle difference between "free software" and "open source software".
Personally, I don't see any difference between both terms.
Is there a list of free vs open source projects?

Besides, if we could put it as simple as:
Free sw - anything under GPL license
Open Src sw - anything under LGPL license
Then Open Src has a benefit, since commercial users eager to contribute to these projects more.

Would FPC be popular, if RTL were under GPL license?

taazz

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 5368
Re: I hate to play the "Devils Advocate", but.....
« Reply #22 on: January 18, 2016, 03:15:26 am »
@skalogryz: This has to do with the subtle difference between "free software" and "open source software".
Personally, I don't see any difference between both terms.
Is there a list of free vs open source projects?

Besides, if we could put it as simple as:
Free sw - anything under GPL license
Open Src sw - anything under LGPL license
Then Open Src has a benefit, since commercial users eager to contribute to these projects more.

Would FPC be popular, if RTL were under GPL license?
Personally I see the difference as free software is something you can freely use as you see fit usually with out cost for purchasing it while open source is everything that you get the source for it, free or not. For example dia is a free and open source software while developer express component suit is open source but not free.
Good judgement is the result of experience … Experience is the result of bad judgement.

OS : Windows 7 64 bit
Laz: Lazarus 1.4.4 FPC 2.6.4 i386-win32-win32/win64

Graeme

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1428
    • Graeme on the web
Re: I hate to play the "Devils Advocate", but.....
« Reply #23 on: January 18, 2016, 04:56:18 pm »
Personally, I don't see any difference between both terms.
Easy. Some software is free (released in binary form), but not open source. So you get the binary and can use the program as much as you like, but you don't have access to the source code.

Open Source projects are normally free and open. Meaning you can use it as much as you like for no cost, and you have access to the source code.

Quote
Besides, if we could put it as simple as:
Free sw - anything under GPL license
Open Src sw - anything under LGPL license
No, no, no... you clearly don't understand the difference.

Quote
Would FPC be popular, if RTL were under GPL license?
No it wouldn't be popular at all. Why, because of the GPL license. If any program you wrote used that RTL, it would mean your application had to be GPL too (in other words - open source and GPL licensed). That is a GPL license requirement. So writing commercial software (closed source) with FPC would then become impossible - unless you implement your own RTL which is not based on GPL or on the RTL included with FPC. That would be a nightmare!

The Free Pascal team purposely chose the FPC compiler to be GPL, so the compiler itself is always free and open source. But the RTL was made available as LGPL with the static linking exception, which means it is open source and you have the option to create closed source projects.
« Last Edit: January 18, 2016, 05:01:07 pm by Graeme »
--
fpGUI Toolkit - a cross-platform GUI toolkit using Free Pascal
http://fpgui.sourceforge.net/

skalogryz

  • Global Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 2770
    • havefunsoft.com
Re: I hate to play the "Devils Advocate", but.....
« Reply #24 on: January 18, 2016, 06:06:55 pm »
Personally, I don't see any difference between both terms.
Easy. Some software is free (released in binary form), but not open source. So you get the binary and can use the program as much as you like, but you don't have access to the source code.

Open Source projects are normally free and open. Meaning you can use it as much as you like for no cost, and you have access to the source code.

Quote
Besides, if we could put it as simple as:
Free sw - anything under GPL license
Open Src sw - anything under LGPL license
No, no, no... you clearly don't understand the difference.
@Graeme. Please refer to the article.
"Free Software" is referred to non-closed source software.
The article is written in the context of open source (free source) community and proving the advantages of the development model.
Free software with a closed sources is typically referred as "Freeware"

I just disagree about the "Spontaneous order" section.
The author stated that, as if all free software projects are evolving due to a some sort of "passion" in the development teams and that no "price signal" are affecting the project.

Here's an example. Firefox browser. It's actually free software, since it falls under 4 freedoms, defined by Stallman.
But I'm quite positive, that Mozilla Corporation influences how the project is developed, and they've to be aligned with "price signal"

P.S. the terms Open Source, Free source are overloaded these days. Making them perfect market brands :D

« Last Edit: January 18, 2016, 06:09:11 pm by skalogryz »

jwdietrich

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1232
    • formatio reticularis
Re: I hate to play the "Devils Advocate", but.....
« Reply #25 on: January 18, 2016, 08:02:49 pm »
P.S. the terms Open Source, Free source are overloaded these days. Making them perfect market brands :D

"Overloaded" is a very elegant wording for this kind of ambiguity. :)

Let's look, what the free software foundation writes about the term "Free":

Quote
“Free software” means software that respects users' freedom and community. Roughly, it means that the users have the freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software. Thus, “free software” is a matter of liberty, not price. To understand the concept, you should think of “free” as in “free speech,” not as in “free beer”. We sometimes call it “libre software” to show we do not mean it is gratis.

Source: What is free software? by gnu.org
function GetRandomNumber: integer; // xkcd.com
begin
  GetRandomNumber := 4; // chosen by fair dice roll. Guaranteed to be random.
end;

http://www.formatio-reticularis.de

Lazarus 2.2.6 | FPC 3.2.2 | PPC, Intel, ARM | macOS, Windows, Linux

marcov

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *
  • Posts: 11383
  • FPC developer.
Re: I hate to play the "Devils Advocate", but.....
« Reply #26 on: January 18, 2016, 08:24:24 pm »
I actually just use Windows. And FreeBSD I was sort of mentally filing in the "Linux/Unix/e.t.c" drawer. My initial post was more directed at the objectively outdated obscure  platforms like Gameboy Advance, e.t.c.... Also by no means was I trying to give a definitive list of what platforms FPC should support, they were moreso just "common"  examples.

The problem is always counting users. It is wrong. The equation is developers = activityquote * users.

For popular targets the activityquote is SO small, the number of users times the activityquote of a project might actually be less than the same product for yesteryears targets.

Example: we are still waiting for the first person to really work on Windows 8/10 Mobile (Windows Desktop/WINRT, UMA etc) applications. Potentially every windows 8/10 user (and a bunch of lumia owners) are the usercrowd. Unfortunately their activity is exactly zero.

Ñuño_Martínez

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1186
    • Burdjia
Re: I hate to play the "Devils Advocate", but.....
« Reply #27 on: January 22, 2016, 02:36:20 pm »
I think there are no discussion:

If somebody is working on it, then it is supported, else if nobody is working on it, then it is not supported.

And I really love that FPC supports such old and weird stuff as DOS, OS/2, PalmOS and AmigaOS.  It adds some difference.
Are you interested in game programming? Join the Pascal Game Development community!
Also visit the Game Development Portal

marcov

  • Administrator
  • Hero Member
  • *
  • Posts: 11383
  • FPC developer.
Re: I hate to play the "Devils Advocate", but.....
« Reply #28 on: January 22, 2016, 02:46:18 pm »
One could only argue that FPC could inform people better which targets are active or not.

But this would also be only an average/indication on very large timescale. It is specially hard to detect a developer stopping, sometimes developer changes jobs and plans to do something, and just doesn't get to it, or only the next christmas holiday etc etc.

At the same time, sometimes people are working on things that haven't been merged into a major tree for quite a while. (e.g. the D2010 RTTI support)

Personally I think FPC is too small a project for such administrative burden.

 

TinyPortal © 2005-2018