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Re: Ok, http://gperiodic.seul.org exists



I'm sorry if my mail hurt your feelings. Really I commend you on your work and
respect it.

I don't speak for SEUL. I speak for myself so don't sound apologetic. I'm
illustrating a general point and this has nothing to do with GPeriodic
specifically and definitely not with you.

I did see however, that someone said a few mails ago that they'd like to see you
develop this into a more useful product. I haven't seen further conversation on
this.

I'm sure such conversation would be useful.

I think the problem here is that two very different professions are trying to work
together. The educationalists have ideas and the programmers implement it.

Here's an example of a programmer who's developed a piece of software on his own.
If the educationalists organised themselves then programmers such as Kyle could
have more clear specs. to work from.

It's not easy to get two communities working together who really do have very
different ways of doing things. I do this every day - it's my profession - I know
how hard it is.

If everyone wants to attract keen programmers such as Kyle then both camps need to
be organized. The educationalists must be sensitive to the way programmers are
used to working and the programmers must try to understand the way educationalists
are used to working.

We all need to work together to create an environment where both camps feel at
home and understand how to proceed in their endeavours.


Kyle Burton wrote:

> > If you can't cover the program's classroom usage before you write the
> > product then you shouldn't even try to write the product. What's the point
> > of producing a product when you have no idea as to whether the idea is
> > suitable or not?
>

Sorry again Kyle, Gperiodic doesn't fall under this category anyway - it's a
utility app. I was looking at a bigger picture.

> I wrote gperiodic because I thought it might be fun.  I had no ulterior
> motives of replacing a commercial product, or even producing an educational
> peice of software.  I did it to learn gtk+ (gui programming under Linux).
>
> The fact that other people (seul-edu, and others) found it useful is great,
> and I appricaite the feedback and space that was given to the project.
> My goal with the free software projects I'm involved in is my own enjoyment,
> when other people find use for the stuff, all the better, but my main
> goal is to enjoy what I'm doing.
>
> Unfortunatly I can only do development in my spare time (as I don't get paid
> to work on gperiodic), so if the suggestions/improvements aren't something
> I think would be interesting to work on, I probably won't do it.
>
> If this goes against the grain of what seul-edu stands for, then I am
> sorry for wasting all of your time.  If my attitude is inappropriate, I
> will gladly return the space for the website/ftp/cvs archive, and you will
> be free to use gperiodic, and do with it as you wish.  I'll just continue
> to tinker with it on my own, from it's original home.
>



> Please help the developers help you.  Keep them interested.

Exactly my point - Bravo. Maybe we programmers should get together and tell the
others how we'd like to work?