Petert wrote: ↑Sat Dec 21, 2019 1:07 pm
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The fragmentation caused by all the different approaches to the assembly problem are counter productive and should not really happen.
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There is no fragmentation. Because free software is not intelligent design, it's evolution.
Originally there was Assembly2. As this project died out, A2plus continued that same philosophy. Then realthunder came around and produced Assembly3 almost single handedly. Later Zolko saw how it could be done in a different way and created Assembly4, using some tools created or Assembly3.
All these attempts were initiatives created by individuals who wanted to solve a particular problem. They weren't intended to be the definite solution of assembly, and to steal the users of the other workbenches. They are attempts, prototypes; they are used and evolve. Right now Assembly3 is about 2 years old, and Assembly4 is barely one year old. That is a very short time to decide if they will be the definite solution or not.
Truth is these workbenches are still in development, and are still being tested by users, old and new, to see what works best. We don't plan this because it just grows naturally. If it's a good solution it will be used by many, if it's not a good solution, it will die down. That's evolution.
Also, FreeCAD still has a relatively small developer community. You seem to think that all developers can get together and plan this together. It's really not that easy because we aren't that many, and everybody is working on their own niche. As I said, Aseembly3 and Assembly4 have been basically the product of single individuals.
What we need is a bigger community of users. Some of those users will become power users and developers. Then those developers will be in a better position to realistically contribute to the code. Right now there are many users and power users who want things, but there are relatively few developers who can actually implement them.