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[Fieari]

If you read the FAQ, you'll see that Toady isn't interested in open sourcing, despite these benefits.  I rather suppose the fact that he's going to need to live off of donations for a while is contributing to this desire to keep the source closed.  Actually, I don't need to suppose, since he's said it flat out straightly.

[omalley]

I think another big reason is that by open-sourcing his (and Threetoe's) vision for DF would get diluted, and seeing as how wonderful it is now, that's not something I'd want to risk.

[Casey]

Probably beating a dead horse, but what's to prevent Toady from using Sourceforge or something, and only allowing himself to commit to the repository?  That way, people could look at the code, squash bugs and/or write minor features or improvements, and then submit a patch.

$0.02

[Sean Mirrsen]

That was kinda what i was intending to propose, but then realised it would hurt DF more than aid it (as in, the code to generating random worlds becoming known, and other such stuff). Yet still, it would be nice if at some point Toady would look at the next feature in his list, and find an array of its possible implementations, ready for use. Would really speed up development, it would...

[OldMiner]

quote:Originally posted by Casey:<STRONG>
but what's to prevent Toady from using Sourceforge or something</STRONG>

Such a system would firstly expose the code to the possibility of someone copying it outright and creating an actual "anyone can write" repository. (Though it would be out and out copyright infringement, people don't seem to respect copyrights. -_-)  And secondly, it would only benefit Toady if those submitting patches could be trusted outright, without requiring review, which brings it back to being a private project anyhow (see below).  As it is, development is rapid with the coding team.  It's just the areas that are focused upon vary from what any given observer would most desire.

quote:Originally posted by Casey:
<STRONG>people could look at the code, squash bugs and/or write minor features or improvements, and then submit a patch.</STRONG>

Reviewing small patches for bug proofing (cure worse than the contagion) and accuracy takes longer than writing the patches themselves.  Finding bugs in a reproducible manner is generally harder than fixing them.  Which is to say, if these things were really that easy to fix, they'd be done by now.  Often you're looking at an issue that's more systemic, and doing a fix right now will mean refixing things properly with more effort later.  And that sort of thing is a pain.

Overall, as coding groups get larger than 5, you have to spend time managing group cruft instead of creating, which just drains the fun out of things.

</ramble>

Edit: (Whoops, forgot to snip the quotes and reorder my response to be in order.)

[ January 20, 2007: Message edited by: OldMiner ]

[Xombie]

I was about to create another thread about waterskin and water problem and i would if its wasn't on 1st page.

But i actually want to know other thing why when i enter river location from map i can't see a river? There is only little dirty swamps or something. In fortress mode there is always a river with clean water.

 

quote:Originally posted by Toady One:
It's not that hard, but there are hundreds of these little things. It takes time to get through them.

I think if that makes people create threads over and over maybe you should raise its priority a little. It's really 3 minutes of work for you and it will save forum from spam      .

[ February 28, 2007: Message edited by: Xombie ]

[Capntastic]

quote:Originally posted by Xombie:
<STRONG>I was about to create another thread about waterskin and water problem and i would if its wasn't on 1st page.

But i actually want to know other thing why when i enter river location from map i can't see a river? There is only little dirty swamps or something. In fortress mode there is always a river with clean water.

 
I think if that makes people create threads over and over maybe you should raise its priority a little. It's really 3 minutes of work for you and it will save forum from spam       .

[ February 28, 2007: Message edited by: Xombie ]</STRONG>

A:  Because he's currently working on changing the way maps work.   He will get everything working awesome when he can.

B:  Given the way everything in the game connects, I'm sure it'd be more than a 3 minute job.

[Xombie]

A: So i will actually see the river on local maps?

B: How can you know? Ok a function which would fill a waterskin in all places where we can drink "from ground" its maybe even 5 minutes to do.
By the way its became not necessary because i discovered other way - instead of drinking you can go to wilderness map and back. Thristy status goes away. Along with wounds and other. But lost eyes don't reappear =)