aapo wrote: ↑Thu Aug 27, 2020 9:25 pm
domad wrote: ↑Thu Aug 27, 2020 6:02 pm
The programmer does his job even if he is not a chemist or an expert in economics or a mechanic or an architect or an engineer etc., he follows the directions of those who work in the field.
I think it should be pointed out, that in this case the programmer does not do his/her job, in the literal sense. FreeCAD is largely a volunteer project, so there are no jobs there. Thus, the chemist, economics expert, mechanic, architect or engineer needs to become a hobbyist programmer in order to orchestrate the development, as the programmer is the one who develops the stuff he/she is interested of in a volunteer-based project.
That said, as a user, I've noticed that providing development ideas and submitting bug reports is a good way to get the developers interested. However, these ideas need to be a) well described and concrete, and b) catch the interest of the developers. Sometimes, I've suggested ideas or sent bug reports, and nobody has been interested, and that is good as it is the nature of volunteer development project. But sometimes, the ideas or requests I've submitted have caused rapid development, especially in TechDraw workbench, which I've been glad about. And, in the end, if I'd want some generally unpopular option or function really really badly, I could try to program it myself because the source code is there, after all.
I cannot help but notice that "MechanicalBlender" seems to have a similar problem of lack of coders, as the latest changes in the repository appear to be a few years back. I think that the idea of always snapping objects together is actually quite a good one, but implementing it FreeCAD-wide (or even just into TechDraw) would require a lot of changes, and it'd be quite hard to persuade any developer to do the work. Unless, if you'd be prepared to program it yourself, or hire someone to program it for you.
Hello "aapo"!
Thank you for your answer, but i certainly don't need morality lessons.
I invite you to reflect on Linus Torvalds' thought, this is what it says:
- It's not that i refrain from taking sides. It's just that i deeply blame anyone who tries to impose their morals on others. And you can replace the word "moral" with religion, computer faith, or more.
- As a technician, i know that technology doesn't transform a damn thing. Society is changing technology, not the other way around. Technology only sets the limits of what we can do and how much it costs us to do it.
These are words to be framed don't you think?
My support and commitment, in first person (i repeat, unfortunately, i am not a phyton programmer and i cannot become one now for many reasons), i assure you it goes beyond your rhetorical, scant and disrespectful comment, mine goes much higher and that is to make a "school" of thought and free culture (!) (not of morality!), promoting it so that public administrations, schools (at all levels) and in particular universities use the open and free software and support him in all senses!
What you say does nothing but cause the opposite effect, that is to discourage those who approach FreeCad and in particular those coming from other applications (... ..program it yourself since the code is free ...) instead of giving high expectations, for example: "My effort as a programmer was great but i know that even for just one of you it was positive (!), This is my priceless reward for having contributed to increasing the interest in Freecad by promoting free software".
Having said that i tell you that your speech is off topic since you too do not express your thoughts on what the topic is: the "snaps" extended to any workbench including TechDraw would be a positive or negative fact for FreeCad (?), also explaining reasons.
I know very well (!) That the developers (maybe you are too) of FreeCad, LibreOffice, Gimp, Inkscape, LibreCad, Blender, Meshlab, etc. are enthusiasts who program by sacrificing their free time:
- so remember and never forget it (!), even we, professionals, use our "free" time dedicating it to FreeCad (i assure you that it is not for "playing"!) and thus contributing to its development.
The reward of this effort:
The "satisfaction" of being aware of having increased our (programmers and users) cultural and professional background but above all elevated our thinking, therefore continuing to solicit new features does nothing but stimulate new challenges.
I wonder what would become of so many software (especially free and in particular Linux) if there were no users?
Here is the evidence, returning to Linus Torvalds, which makes you think:
- At a certain point, postcards began to arrive from different corners of the planet. I think it was then that i realized that people around the world were really using what he had created. (Sara Torvalds)
- You are lucky that you are not my student, you would not get a good grade for a project like this! (Andrew Stuart Tanenbaum)
I hope my English was decent…. good day