Re: Publishing Open Source Stuff

"A Programmer" <youdontneedtoknow@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:nhpvq11jbcgqh956tgi66s9vonn8v3il1h@xxxxxxxxxx
> I have a couple of personal projects that I've done some work on, but
> due to time constraints I won't likely be able to finish them to my
> satisfaction for release purposes.
>
> So, does anyone have any suggestions or experience in terms of
> publishing open-source style software? Either starting as a whole
> thing or putting something out and possibly getting the support to try
> to get a finished product?

Sourceforge is full of projects that faded out. Unless your projects hit
the imagination and needs of others, not much can happen. Bits of
incomplete software or libraries are low in value these days unless they do
something special.

Why not zip them up and put them on your personal webpage with nice clear
descriptions of purpose, stage of completion, tools required, etc and invite
people to download them and email you ? Give your page a title which
includes your name and something to do with programming, because Google will
soon pick it up and you want it to be easy to find again. Post a link here
or 3rd party tools etc. The web is so active these days that you will get
some downloads and emails and you will know your work did some good. I
doubt if you will get a development team going though.

Programming complete applications to a high standard is tiring, long term
work and your team has to see it through to completion over weeks, months or
years. So many open source projects produce unusable slop. Documentation
takes a lot of time and rewrites, but your work cannot be used by others
without it. Every code release has to go through final testing, help file
updates, web page update, installer building, uploading - just as much work
as commercial code releases: otherwise its rubbish.

I spent a lot of spare time developing a program over 2+ years. Only 2
people ever looked at the source code, and both of those were beginners who
would not have got much use from it. I have come to realise that I have to
do the work myself. End users have done about 1000 downloads, and perhaps
200 of those get continuing value from the program. That satisfaction is my
entire reward.

Roger Lascelles


.

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