Firstly, I'm glad to see you taking an interest in FreeCard, however I think you're expecting FreeCard to be further along than it really is.
I understand that most, if not all, that is available from the FreeCard project now is source files that need to be compiled. I don't mind tryng to do that, as long as I have an idea of what I am going to get.
You're going to get a bunch of compiled java files that don't really do anything. FreeCard isn't functional, it doesn't do anything yet. You have to take some time and work through the code to see what's going on and to benefit at all from downloading the source code.
Why don't you compile a few things that work, even if they don't do much more than putting a window on screen?
Because a demo that just puts a window on screen is a waste of my time creating it and that time is time that's not spent on FreeCard.
If you want to motivate me and others, you should provide much more information about the project. A few screenshots is the least I expect. These screenshots doesn't have to be real; you can make pictures that show where you want to go with the project.
As I said, it's great that you're interested in the project, but right now I don't want to motivate you in particular. I don't want you to be trying out FreeCard just yet because there is nothing to see. I actually considered developing FreeCard privately and not making anything available until close to version 1.0 because I didn't want people to expect to be able to immediately play with it.
What I do want now is people who are familiar with Java development and opensource development practices to get involved and take on a piece of Freecard. There are three requirements for anyone wanting to do this:
1. Understand and be able to work with CVS. All the information you will ever need is at http://www.cvshome.org and restated a million times across the web.
2. Have a solid understanding of Java programming. You most likely need to have some experience on other Java projects at the moment because I don't have enough time to guide people through learning Java as well as learning FreeCard and then go through cleaning up code from inexperienced developers. If developers aren't well versed in Java they will just slow down development not speed it up. Later when we have a working product and some more experienced developers on the project we'll be able to help out new coders a lot more.
3. Know how to use maven and understand how it works. All the information you need on it is at http://maven.apache.org/ You can't build FreeCard without knowing how maven works because maven is the official build tool so any other method of building needs to effectively do what maven does.
These requirements are not unusual for a Java development project, in fact they're fairly minimal. You have to have version control (CVS) you have to know the language (Java) and you have to know the build process (maven). That's pretty much a requirement of every project that involves more than just one person.
Contrary to what you may think, the information in the Pantechnicon does not tell the potential user or developer much about the FreeCard project. It is even not clear whether it will eventually be able to import HyperCard stacks. If you are telling me that it really is there somehwere, then apparently you've put the info in the wrong place.
I'm not telling you that any information is up there for end users. Right now, there is nothing to see or do for end users because we are in the early stages of the project. Later, there'll be stuff for end users, but not yet. As for what features FreeCard will support that entirely depends on what the developers implement. I can't afford to spend a whole bunch of time implementing features that I'll never use - I have to earn a living. So if you want to import HyperCard stacks, you probably should acquire the knowledge to do so or pay someone to implement it. If you have a knowledge of XML you can probably start thinking about creating a HyperCard exporter that exports a HyperCard stack into the FreeCard XML format. You'll want to check out my earlier post about the MetaCard converter on the freecard blog. There's not a lot of documentation for this now because it's probably too early to start work on a converter (not really much to convert it to yet).
I have downloaded lots of Java tutorials and with your help I could put something together and compile the source files. Later, I can learn more about Java and maybe I can actually contribute, but I am not at that stage yet.
Every last scrap of information you need is already pretty clearly available in the developer guide. I simply don't have time to write step by step instructions for every possible set up on how to do it. If you take the time to read all the information and meet the 3 prerequisites above then maybe you'll have time to write down those steps to make it easier for others.
There is a good chance that I will be asked to give a presentation at the Apple Expo Paris 2003. I could talk about open source projects, since Apple thinks that open source is very important, and link it to the FreeCard project. You'll understand that I'll need something that I can show, preferably a limited but working authoring tool. Do you have anything for me?
I'm not sure when the Paris Expo is but I imagine it's way too soon to be expecting to demo FreeCard or to publicly announce it. Everything in it's time, if you rush the development of FreeCard it will fail to impress, if you just sit back and give the developers time to create great products it will turn out much better. Believe me when the time is right I'll make a big deal about it but right now I'm deliberately keeping very quiet. Nothing to see here, come back in a while and hopefully there will be. :)
As to the question whether MacOS 9 is worth considering, I am using MacOS 9 only and many people are. There are still many more old Macs being used than new Macs, especially by home users. If I am going to present anything in Paris, it will probably have to run on MacOS X, but if I am going to use it as a developing tool, it will have to run on MacOS 9 and the products I develop with it too.
The comparative size of OS 9 vs OS X at the moment is irrelevant. The comparative size of OS 9 versus every other platform out there in about a years time when FreeCard is likely to be taking off is what matters and frankly OS 9 is hopelessly insignificant when put in that context. I personally cannot make a business case for supporting OS 9 and so I can't spend time on making sure FreeCard runs there. If someone else is interested in OS 9 and wants to do the testing and extra development work that will be required to make it happen then that's great I'll definitely support that venture. I wouldn't be surprised if noone stood up for that job though because it's a fair bit of work to support such an old version of Java and there's just so little return on investment for it.
Mark
Sorry to be so blunt about this but reality is often harsh and I have to live in reality because it's the only way I can put bread on the table. I'm developing FreeCard because I believe that it will increase my productivity in developing custom software solutions. I'm giving FreeCard away for free and donating a heck of a lot of my time and that means that my business gets less of my time so I have to be very realistic about where I can put my efforts because otherwise my business goes down the drain or my business partner winds up carrying all the work of the business while I'm working on FreeCard.
If you are still keen to get involved, the first thing to do is meet those 3 prerequisites (Alain may have some alternate work on FreeGUI or similar that has different prerequisites of course but that's still outside of the FreeCard codebase at the moment). If you have *specific* questions then I can answer them, but I can't provide any better answer as to "what do I have to do to help" because all the information is already available and is pretty clear.
Regards,
Adrian Sutton.
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