About The BrailleNote List Exerpt

[Sabahattin Gucukoglu]

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Hi everyone,

A message accompanying this one describes, far better than I in a short 
posting like this, the current state of affairs with regard to BrailleNote 
and its development.  This is  a message digest - if you're lucky, your 
email program will see it is a folder unto itself which you can browse as 
you would a typical folder.  This self-contained folder gives you a 
snapshot of the postings and replies made to it by BrailleNote subscribers 
in response to a message I sent listing features that I and a couple of 
friends (one of them Saqib, though he doesn't represent all of what I said 
so don't pounce on him - he probably thinks I've stepped way over the line 
by now), as well - I'm sure - as most of you here, felt were important in 
the freedom of BrailleNote from its ever-present enclosure.  Read and, at 
a number of points along the way, enjoy.  At the very least, you should be 
proud to have someone of such artless tactlessness on your side. <Grin>

Personal responses follow as a matter of less significant but nevertheless 
interesting background, in a separate digest.

Be assured, I still think this project has potential, especially in light 
of the below.  It may have less of a purpose if we get what we want out of 
these SDKs or whatever, as we agreed that this practical approach was the 
more important, less the software itself.  However, as explained next, we 
will be differentiated significantly from PulseData if we do successfully 
manage to bring something out because our code will be open.

Here are the key points, in a nutshell:

The source code of XBase is now out.  Download and take a look from their 
downloads page.  Don't you just love the pretentious, "Be aware that this 
is LGPL but that's all, so don't try any funny stuff..." statement in the 
readme?  You'll notice also that they have *finally* noticed the absence 
of KeySoft 4.02 build 1992 on their site and replaced the file.

They aint open sourcin' nothin'.  Too bad.  As you will see from my last 
post, I've no problem with that, though it is of course a great 
disappointment; I still concern myself that bug-squashing will not be easy 
without their cooperation and easier and better release cycles.  Remember, 
we may be here to hack and bask in the glory of true freedom, but we need 
PulseData on our side about some things and a BrailleNote that does more 
than we at first expected from the people themselves is no bad thing.

In many respects this initial response is very agreeable.  Take a look for 
yourself.  I am hopeful, even despite the understandable decline of open 
source in his situation (although I honestly think the market value of not 
doing so would still excel the result of doing so).  If any new customers 
come along, I'd like to introduce this product to them in a way that 
suggests that they will enjoy it and that it is not broken half the time, 
and I can't do this yet.  I still can't decide whether Mr. Mosen is in any 
way on the bad side; he certainly doesn't fully appreciate development 
completely, but that's probably through no fault of his own.  I'd hate to 
think I'm in a war of words here, and this message is encouraging in that 
regard.  But people apparently do owe it to me for being bothered to point 
out these serious concerns, so I am hopeful that something, anything, gets 
done about it.

Cheers,
Sabahattin
- -- 
Thought for the day:
    Communist (n): one who has given up all hope
    of becoming a Capitalist.


Sabahattin Gucukoglu
Phone: +44 20 7,502-1615
Mobile: +44 7986 053399
http://www.sabahattin-gucukoglu.com/
Email/MSN: <mail at Sabahattin-Gucukoglu.com>


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