Re: [MiNT] [2] Thing bug - is Gryf listening here?#

[Petr Stehlik <joy@sophics.cz>]

On Mon, 2002-05-06 at 14:22, Thomas Binder wrote:
> -- snip --
> Nope. That's not because I'm greedy, but because the code is a
> mess. I took me more than a year to sufficiently understand how
> everything works together (remember, I'm not the original author)
> - and I'm actually quite good at understanding other people's
> code. Releasing Thing's code in its current state wouldn't lead to
> people adding stuff, but rather in saying "boy, that's awful code,
> Arno and Thomas must be lousy coders".

I know what you mean. I guess this doesn't help you but I am a lousy
coder and I feel shame whenever I release my own code. But I do it
nevertheless - I think that giving other people chance to do something
with the code is better than just saying it's awful and actually forcing
the people to either abandon TOS platform for lack of a good desktop
forcing them to write a new desktop from scratch - which, in the end, is
probably same as quiting the platform immediately (considering the
amount of work that has to go into a good desktop like Thing currently
is).

People may not realize yet how powerful combination could become from
the EmuTOS, fVDI, XaAES, FreeMiNT and a decent free desktop. Having
completely free operating system could cause a boom of new Atari
compatible machines and perhaps giving a bit of fresh blood to the dying
community.

> For example, the code has almost no useful comments - and I can
> assure you that I would take me a lot more time to make the code
> presentable (and thus useable) than to finish 1.30.

The key question is whether you have time/energy/inspiration/motivation
for further work on Thing. Is it getting close to 1.30 yet?

Petr