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Rob

USA
2615 Posts

Posted - 03/22/2013 :  09:00:28  Show Profile  Visit Rob's Homepage
Well, it's time for me to release the S+ code to the world.

It really needs to be rewritten by someone with far more C++ and internationalization experience. I simply do not have the time to rewrite S+ and my level of interest in development and support is waning.

While I'm very saddened to let my baby go, I think it's in the best interest of everyone. Having made so little in donations over the past 1.3 years certainly doesn't help; I'd really expected to make a bit more. Now that S+ is becoming more known, the number of requests, questions, and bugs are steadily increasing; requiring more of what little personal time I have to spend. It pains me to ignore people (as I'm sure most of you can tell), but I find it's becoming more and more difficult to find the time.

So, to prevent S+ from becoming the next StrokeIt, it's time for me to cut the cord.

I'm looking for some input regarding the steps to open source S+. I'm not looking to be an admin/owner of the project, but I would like to hear from anyone who is very involved in open source projects, to make sure the code is released to the best place and the right way.

I will keep the website up for a while to come.

Rob

USA
2615 Posts

Posted - 03/22/2013 :  09:42:28  Show Profile  Visit Rob's Homepage
Oh there's a ton of lame code, to be honest the whole app is pretty hacked together as I knew virtually nothing about C++ nor writing native Windows apps; so there was a LOT of brute force development Plus, I honestly never thought much would ever come of it, I approached the development of S+ as a hobby, and it's reflected in many areas. I even typed up a comment block at the top of the 4 main source files, explaining what I am here and to be nice! Some of the code is really laughable, but hey, it works pretty darn good and a lot of people say it's the best mouse gesture app for Windows, so I guess it can't be THAT bad.

Adding more gestures to an action doesn't necessarily require an entire rewrite, just a bit of work and I don't have the time..so that's been my excuse for more complicated requests which have little value (from my perspective, that is): - core changes are being deferred to the rewrite I've wanted to do for a long time. Also, adding more gestures per action would alter the structure of the config XML, which would also be a big headache, as then I'd really need to write code which migrates the format automatically; a lot of code and time for something which I don't see has a lot of value; these are the real reasons. I've never done that and don't really see the point of having two gestures do the same thing; but I'm sure there are people who do see a value in it.

All that said, I can tell that the time for a rewrite is never going to come, as I'm fine with how S+ is now. So unless it was something that I felt was really needed, not too difficult, or interesting to me personally; it was deferred. As time has gone by, it's starting to feel like a recurring theme and there are some big life changes coming that are only going to further limit my time.

I'll likely open it up sometime next week.

Thanks for the feedback!
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Rob

USA
2615 Posts

Posted - 03/22/2013 :  10:30:56  Show Profile  Visit Rob's Homepage
You're correct, it would only require a new nested loop through the GestureName nodes; I hadn't looked at that code for quite a while.

The interface would be the only significant change, which was the main reason for my hesitation, the XML structure was an assumption without analysis
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Rob

USA
2615 Posts

Posted - 03/22/2013 :  10:44:35  Show Profile  Visit Rob's Homepage
And these are the reasons I know it's time to release it; I no longer have the zest or desire to spend much time on S+ anymore. I think the core of the app is decent enough to be a springboard for the open source community to really take it to the next level, even in its current state.

I chose XML as I figured if the time ever came, it's so much easier to work with. Of course, I'd also hoped that someone would've made a site/program which worked with the S+ XML file in some way, even if just to act as a bridge to import from StrokeIt or who knows what else.

A rewrite is really needed at some point, primarily to address the internationalization issues and improve the UI. I always wanted to add a wizard (like a basic/advanced mode), so users uncomfortable with scripting could still do a lot of things visually.
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Rob

USA
2615 Posts

Posted - 03/22/2013 :  10:57:14  Show Profile  Visit Rob's Homepage
Exactly. If it weren't for me trying to keep a framework like .NET out of the picture, I would've certainly kept working with Dylan on HighSign, but the RAM usage is such a sticking point for people, that I wanted to make something which could compete with StrokeIt in that area.

If I were to have used something like C#, the interface would've been beautiful, fluid, and robust; with native Windows API calls, it just wasn't worth the effort! Writing native Windows GUI code is a real pain in the ass. Of course, now that I've learned so much, it wouldn't be as big a deal; but I don't have the time anymore to rewrite it.

In the end, I've made less than $300USD for all the time I've put into S+, that hasn't even covered the expense of web hosting for the last (almost) year and a half. Granted, if S+ were designed and coded with all of the ideas everyone has had, maybe that would be different

But alas, I wanted to make something that would be free, which dictated the direction of the development.
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Rob

USA
2615 Posts

Posted - 03/22/2013 :  11:26:43  Show Profile  Visit Rob's Homepage
...that's exactly what I was hoping for. Give it a simple GUI which can get the job done, but that someone (or perhaps myself) would write a separate program (likely in a higher-level framework) which could do fancy/pretty stuff since XML is easily understandable.
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breakcore

Russia
74 Posts

Posted - 03/22/2013 :  15:25:28  Show Profile
Hi Rob,
That's sad :(
Is it your final decision?
Didn't you thinking to put a price on S+, like 10$ at least? I would suggested a little help with promotion for free.
Can you please tell me what it means "to open source S+" regarding the future of S+.
Again, that's sad, but I can imagine what you feel with request overload.
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Rob

USA
2615 Posts

Posted - 03/22/2013 :  15:49:18  Show Profile  Visit Rob's Homepage
I'm pretty sure it is; though I did give myself a week (mentioned above) to change my mind =)

The only issue with putting a price is that it borrows from several other projects (as listed in the About tab). I'm not a lawyer nor do I want to go through all the fine print to see if I'm even allowed to!

Plus, I don't have a lot of time to spend on S+ as it is; if I sold it, the workload would only increase tenfold because now I have a paying customer who has an issue. That's a lot more responsibility than it is now...and I don't think it would take off or anything. If these types of programs truly made money: a) there would be more of them b) Jeff would actually be in the StrokeIt forum and releasing updates :)

It's a very sad decision, but I have found myself anchored to my desk, between work and S+. I can't simply ignore a bug, request, or user posting in the forum, so it always takes time out of my day (and night, since there are people on the other side of the world!).

I think if the folks here banded together, an alternate site could be setup which continues using the open source version. Of course, it means there would need to be some coordination, etc., but I feel there's a number of S+ users who are fluent with development and could fork the code to their liking, leading to many variations of S+ (or whatever they name it). Open source is great for utilities like this as people are free to tweak for their own needs. But it does mean that it can become a mess of forks and bugs in different versions, no one managing it, etc.

It doesn't mean I'm never going to have some involvement, but I need to psychologically and "officially" cut the cord so I can feel like it doesn't all depend on me; that there's an entire community of people who are able to take the code and fix/tweak/enhance it however they see fit.

Like I said before, I'm not shutting down the website anytime soon. So it's entirely possible that the site stays up and serves as a portal for people tweaking their own versions of S+; I'd be happy to create new forum categories if that were the case. Maybe I pick and choose the changes others make and plug it into an official S+ package from time-to-time; maybe even be able to steal the code from someone else who has fixed the language/Unicode issues

Stay tuned!
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breakcore

Russia
74 Posts

Posted - 03/22/2013 :  16:14:12  Show Profile
Thanks for explanation, Rob. I feel a little relieved now :) And I forgot about other projects involvement...
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Chris

28 Posts

Posted - 03/23/2013 :  13:25:07  Show Profile
Personally, I think StrokesPlus is much..much better than StrokeIt.
However, some users may be discouraged as soon as they look at the scripting. Maybe a system that looks easy to import commands that can be downloaded from here will encourage new users to try and experiment.

And also I think not many users know the convenience of using mouse gesture on everyday computer activities. Maybe approach from everyday usages that are used by most computer users can help introduce S+ to new users. Or maybe more highlighting S+ as hotkey organizer might increase interest as many users are more used to hotkeys than mouse gesture.
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Chris

28 Posts

Posted - 03/25/2013 :  08:54:03  Show Profile
quote:
I suppose one could simply add a dialog to allow adding the most basic commands. And generally hide the script from most folks. Most everything is run this program and hit this hotkey.

I agree with this. Normal users mostly want to send hotkeys to a window.
Maybe a interface where users are able to choose commands and choose the parameters. Then S+ will create the script for the users on the edit control.
Example: a user picks acSendKeys, then he or she can choose which window and what keys, etc.
That way, users can learn little by little the syntax by using the graphical first then later on they can feel that typing the script them-self is faster. And they might want to learn to do other commands and tricks.
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Rob

USA
2615 Posts

Posted - 04/02/2013 :  12:46:51  Show Profile  Visit Rob's Homepage
Just an FYI: I've moved to a new state and have a new job (I no longer work from home!); so I will not be as active around here.

I'm still planning to open source S+, just need a little more time for everything else to settle down.
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Chris

28 Posts

Posted - 04/03/2013 :  06:33:00  Show Profile
Congratulations, Rob! New job means better paycheck.
And.. a new state? I'm guessing you've found the right person as a lifetime partner. I'm happy for you.
And still, I'm hoping later on maybe.. you would change your mind about not developing S+ anymore.
Good luck..
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xopen

10 Posts

Posted - 04/24/2013 :  01:44:48  Show Profile
I admire you, your software is useful update fixes soon, although I am not a programmer, but also understand the maintenance of this software requires a lot of time, if there is no time to slow down the speed of updating, even for a fee software are notyou updates efficiency, not to mention you are free, you do, we are very satisfied, you have a good rest, to software maintenance down.
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xopen

10 Posts

Posted - 04/24/2013 :  01:46:34  Show Profile
英文翻译的不好 我发中文吧: 我很敬佩你,你的软件很好用,更新修复很快,虽然我不是程序员,但是也理解维护这个软件需要很多时间,如果没有时间就放慢更新的速度,哪怕是收费的软件都没有你这样的更新效率,何况你的是免费的,你做的我们已经很满意了,你休息好,才能把软件维护下去。
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dilentec2

Mexico
1 Posts

Posted - 04/28/2013 :  08:27:05  Show Profile
I guess gestures are part of "the way of the future". Touchscreens are making people more intuitive and I think also more receptive to this way of controlling devices. I won't be surprised when seeing StrokesPlus flag up high on GUI's history. Cheers to the author.
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