"How could you justify to not include source code? That's evil. As evil as suggesting the use of a platform that children would be unable to use if they wished to."
------ I'm really sorry for cluttering the list again, but I had to immediately reply to this. Some developers need to put food on the table and feed themselves and their family. Do you think that's evil? Do you think that it's fair that the legendary genius Sean T. Cooper who made http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syndicate_(video_game) at Bullfrog who's now making a humble living as an indie Flash game developer (http://www.games.seantcooper.com) is forced to give away for free to everyone his isometric game engine that he's selling (http://www.games.seantcooper.com/Develop.aspx) which he worked on for over a decade? He's already freely giving to everyone via tutorials & free as in beer games to enjoy, but must you take away his livelihood? Not every developer can be as fortunate to be as successful as John Carmack to afford a Ferrari and play with actual spacecraft to give away his game engines for free (we owe a great debt to this man). ----- About code/apps as art: can't you respect the artistic wishes of an artist? Is it evil for a magician to keep secret the tricks of his trade? Code is art. If you are the author, it contains a part of your soul. Is it fair to invade JD Salinger's privacy against his wishes and demand he give an interview just to get ? ----- I agree about the security issues of not having the sourcecode for review. That is why it is dangerous for governments to be completely reliant on closed-source technologies. How about this: provide the sourcecode/files for private review to the governing body (like the OLPC dev team or organizers of local deployments) to make sure it doesn't contain malware, backdoors, etc and plays nice with the system, but not open to the whole world because it can also be exploited for the wrong reasons (hacking, kid cheating without learning (my multiple choice math puzzle example)) or prevent the author from feeding himself? Or maybe for the author to give his utmost assurance that the software contains no malware if he/she is unable to legally give reveal the sourcecode or if it will truly impair his ability to feed and clothe himself and his family. Is that acceptable? ----- This is a hypothetical situation, but what if none of you guys or the kids speak the language the program was written in? What if the app was written in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malbolge ? Aside from the admiration of the sheer craftsmanship and awesome display of a true work of horror, what good is it to anyone who wants to patch and improve the software? ----- What I think is evil is people who freely take other peoples' work and not give anything back in return, use it for good/productively, give credit or contribute to the community. For example, pirates and black-hat hackers who do it for profit and not for reasons of limited finances or without the intention of giving back something in return when they have the opportunity to do so later on. I'm sorry if I offended you guys, but I hope you can see that some of my points are very valid. Mabuhay. -Naz -- carlos nazareno http://twitter.com/object404 http://www.object404.com -- interactive media specialist zen graffiti studios http://www.zengraffiti.com -- "if you don't like the way the world is running, then change it instead of just complaining." _______________________________________________ Devel mailing list Devel@lists.laptop.org http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
