Sponsored by TWIST - Tablet Weavers International Studies & Techniques
>I think I have earned the right to respond to this off-topic tangent here. No need to earn the right to respond - we're here to discuss and share ideas. <g> This is obviously something I've thought a lot about and struggled with, and this seemed like the best place for a discussion on the topic. >This was a rhetorical question, right? ;> Absolutely - as I said, it was meant to start a discussion since I am very interested in hearing what other folks think on this issue. > People who participate in TWIST exchanges give away designs and > weavings. Also, many people who may not ever participate in exchanges do > give away weavings as presents. (Some of >the most cherished gifts I have given and received have been weavings with >original designs.) And many of us on this list give away our writings too, >whether in text or in code. I agree completely - part of the joy of creating things is making gifts for people we love, and the very existence of this list testifies to our willingness to share ideas. I guess what I was thinking about is people who do something as a profession, for a living. In an exchange, you aren't giving away anything, you are exchanging it - swapping ideas with others. Gifts to friends aren't the same thing either - I did give TurnStyler to a few friends and to Sigrid Piroch who was my main beta tester. And I appreciate all the web sites with beautiful photos and descriptions and patterns. I guess the thing I am struggling with is the dilemma of being able to spend time creating something fun to share with others, and having to justify to myself and my family the time it takes away from earning a living. >Besides, in my Perfect Vision, the open source code will all be in Linux >anyway. ;> Well, the good thing is that the mentions of java and XML are more likely to move things in that direction! :-) > But since this is a highly charged ideological issue completely >unrelated to tablet weaving, we don't have to pursue it here. I don't think of this as a highly charged issue, but maybe I can shift it to something of more general interest to the list. If there were a standard format for describing tabletweaving, what do you think it should look like? What specific pieces of information would you like to see in it? I used binary files for TurnStyler, and it has bugged me ever since. In the meantime, I have had jobs that required me to use XML, and I am really excited about it's possibilities for all kinds of self-describing data. Since it is easy to obtain open source software for reading and writing XML files, I think it would be neat to design a format (called a DTD in XML terminology) for tabletweaving. If anyone who wrote software for tabletweaving design supported that format, it would make it easy to share designs regardless of what program was used to create those designs. Guntram's Tabletweaving Thingie uses xml files already. Anyone taken a look at those? Deanna Send private reply to Deanna Johnson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ----------------------------------------------------------- To stop receiving tabletweaving (not tabletweaving-digest), send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: unsubscribe tabletweaving. To stop receiving tabletweaving-digest, see the end of a digest.
