Hello Sabahattin, Let me break it down for you. Let me put it simply and thoroughly. Pulsedata International doesn't want to release a developers kit because they have a bunch of Americans as their cash cow and they don't want anyone else at the golden spigot! get it? blazie engineering didn't mind cause he was raking the money in hand over foot. Note you developed a nice little program and the boys at PDI apoke rather jealously and said oh, we won't guarantee the warrantry if you use that. they made $40 million dollars year before last! what more do they want? I think if they released the developers kit, it would enhance their products. People would develop games and programs that will be useful. but they're not brave enough yet. <grin> Isaac
On Tue, 28 Dec 2004, Sabahattin Gucukoglu wrote: > Hi Isaac and Company, > > On 27 Dec 2004 at 22:11, Isaac Obie spoke, thus: > > > It sounds like somebody's beenlooking at the elba. > > It's totally inappropriate for me to follow up on this thread, but I'm > going to chance it anyway because of the tenuous links involved here > between the ELBA, voice recording and added functionality. :-) > > As a developer, it has been the greatest news to me to learn that > Papenmeier, the guys who put the ELBA together, have officially declared > the codebase of the entire product - not just what needs to be open, the > whole darn lot - open source. When I wrote to the list some time ago I > speculated that the SDK approach would have a potentially big effect on > the BrailleNote, but that it would see an important limitation - it would > only allow the development of new programs in an already fairly disparate > developer network of blind and vision-impaired developers and their > interest in furtherance of the product. This has manifested itself in the > ELBA of old with similar provisions, and Papenmeier's response has been to > go truely open source in consequence, with the hope that the development > efforts for the Linux-based device will increase with its support of > associated Free Software philosophy. I congratulate this choice. Since > PulseData have not begun to walk the path of enlightenment as of yet, I > have yet to comment on the results of the release of SDK and associated > improvements in product development and/or testing that would make it more > open and/or responsive to user complaint and recommendation. Certainly, > and this is something that will take an off-topic thread on this list in > itself, the use of Linux in the ELBA is a good choice for guaranteeing > freedom of choice of text-based software (yes, text adventures and > textmode IM clients are the most obvious example of this), but there is no > reason why enthusiasm for developing simple-to-use, menu-oriented > applications for the KeySoft platform should not have serious potential. > > I've already fairly well documented my annoyance at having to watch posts > on this list demanding this sort of flexibility and choice, that and the > other application or function, not because I feel they are necessarily > wrong to make an appearance at all (though I have on a number of occasions > done so where the request is clearly inappropriate or ludicrous and out-of- > context for mainstream PDA usage), but because I as a developer have on > more than one occasion agreed with said posters and wished that I could > make the change or add the feature requested for the good of everyone. > So, with the exception of recording and other such that demands hardware > upgrades, I am very much on Paul's side with regard to the "Clothes-tree" > problem; if PulseData choose proprietary but easy-to-use interfaces known > and approved by the VI community, they must account for its severe > development limitations by one or more means, whether that's the SDK, open > source, shorter release cycles, public beta-testing, bugfixing and > knitpicking fulfilments and so on and realise that they are always falling > short of the mainstream PDA definition, technologically as well as > functionally, where their immediate competitors do not. We have already > seen how public beta-testing could have benefited the PK in the matter of > the SMTP delivery problem, though I understand that for an initial release > demanding new hardware this was hard to avoid. > > Much of the individual points on this have been made by me time and again, > I won't repeat them. You should probably try searching the archives if > you are determined to see the full explanations. I will only add that > being a developer means that I will scratch my own itches given the > chance, and that on absolutely no account do I represent the slave to this > or any other assistive technology company. It is not enough to allow the > decision-making process to happen entirely outside my control, so do not > accept the notion that I am merely a consumer awaiting the next big > inovation. Yes, open source and AGRIP is what gave me this view, it will > never change after that. Just know that there is someone else who listens > to you and is hopeful one day to be able to spare the hours and time to > give you a response to your "Can I have" questions with something other > than "Nope, sorry, PulseData aint dunnit yet." > > Cheers, > Sabahattin > > -- > If an email tells you to forward it to all your friends, please > temporarily forget that I am your friend. > > Sabahattin Gucukoglu > Phone: +44 20 88008915 > Mobile: +44 7986 053399 > http://www.sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/ > Email/MSN: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Skype: SabahattinGucukoglu > (requires authorisation, add me to your list first) > SpeakFreely: sabahattin-gucukoglu.com > (Please use CELP compression if your processor allows) > > > ___ > To leave the BrailleNote list, send a blank message to > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > To view the list archives or change your preferences, visit > http://list.pulsedata.com/mailman/listinfo/braillenote >
