xLights and Nutcracker release

[smeighan]

Matt;

I am posting this here also as some people have insuidated that I have released code without your permission or knowledge.

So that people know, Matt and I have been discussing Nutcracker and xLights for about 4 or 5 months.

After Matt ported Nutcracker into xLights last december, i felt this set the direction i wanted to take Nutcracker.

I have copied the latest xLights code into github. I did this so that as I modify xLights, i dont break the original code tree. I am no where as skilled at C++ as Matt is. It is my believe that we might re sync the original dxLights with my newest code periodically.

Last year Matt did 5 releases of xLights. I did 160 releases of Nutcracker.
I am thinking of making some similar 3-4 release per year back in sourceforge while i do hundreds of mini releases out of github.

Matt has offered to write the mp4 movie player, add some more effects. I want to work on getting the gallery working and communicating to nutcracker123.com without the need for XAMPP or WAMP

In other words there is plenty of work.

Matt; if you could post a note confirming that my having a separate copy of xLights in github is what we described and i am not doing something underhanded.

Some of the questions raised by people sure seem strange.

My github version of xLights/Nutcracker is found here You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login

thanks
sean

[RJ]

Sean,

  You have to get use to it. There was a time when I could not sneeze without a few people claiming it was an attempt to spread the black plague.  <fp.

RJ

[rdebolt]

I do not see how that is anyone's business except for you and Matt! If there was an issue I would expect that Matt would let you know, it is not up to us to criticize!!!! I for one am very thankful to Sean and Matt for sharing their talents. I can say that I would not have the display that I do without people like you guys willing to spend their time in building and sharing, (FOR FREE) I might add, what they build!

 THANK YOU!!!! <res.  <res.  <res.

[remoteutah]

Sean,
Wow! I have found the audacity of SOME people regarding this amazing news to be embarassing.   <md..
You may have seen the various posts I have made in yours' and Matt defence.  Hang in there, dude!  If you read thru the BS, there are many of us that love and appreciated the work BOTH of you have done!  Where is the world coming to that people bi*ch about a free damn lunch!

[jlowe]

I think most of it was people misunderstanding that may not have been following the Nutcracker-xlights work that has been happening for a while now.  xlights isn't as familiar to people at DIYC as it is here, either, but they are familiar with nutcracker.  Sometimes people react without taking a breath.

Don't let those things get to you.  It's very exciting about the direction nutcracker and xlights are moving and you both should be proud of the work done. 

[ptone]

Sean,
Wow! I have found the audacity of SOME people regarding this amazing news to be embarassing.   <md..
You may have seen the various posts I have made in yours' and Matt defence.  Hang in there, dude!  If you read thru the BS, there are many of us that love and appreciated the work BOTH of you have done!  Where is the world coming to that people bi*ch about a free damn lunch!

Work is of course appreciated, but as someone who spends a lot of time working voluntarily on open source projects, some of them quite large, certain community standards have to be observed. This means respecting the license chosen by the original copyright holder - which wasn't done.  Sean has added this now (You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login), so that is cool.

Open source != free lunch/public domain, I'm sorry - equating those is just ignorant of the facts. I don't expect the users on this forum to understand the complexities of open software development - but don't speak authoritatively about which you are not informed.

There is also a less formal "credit where credit is due" meritocracy in open source.  There was a whole lot of "I" in the 3.0 announcement, and not one single "we". Where as if you look at the code in the "nutcracker" 3 repository it is 99% written by Matt. Sure the algorithms are ported from Sean's version, but the implementation is original, and often improved over Sean's PHP work. As a fellow developer, I just was enquiring as to Matt's participation in this release, as it did not appear as a joint announcement.

I'm not out to accuse Sean of being evil - anyone who chooses to release their stuff as open source gets a big pat on the back from me, and the effort spent on not just writing the software, but supporting it is admirable. But these melodramatic responses to my request for clarification are a tad off-base.

Regards,

-P

[smeighan]

Sean,
Wow! I have found the audacity of SOME people regarding this amazing news to be embarassing.   <md..
You may have seen the various posts I have made in yours' and Matt defence.  Hang in there, dude!  If you read thru the BS, there are many of us that love and appreciated the work BOTH of you have done!  Where is the world coming to that people bi*ch about a free damn lunch!

Work is of course appreciated, but as someone who spends a lot of time working voluntarily on open source projects, some of them quite large, certain community standards have to be observed. This means respecting the license chosen by the original copyright holder - which wasn't done.  Sean has added this now (You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login), so that is cool.

Open source != free lunch/public domain, I'm sorry - equating those is just ignorant of the facts. I don't expect the users on this forum to understand the complexities of open software development - but don't speak authoritatively about which you are not informed.

There is also a less formal "credit where credit is due" meritocracy in open source.  There was a whole lot of "I" in the 3.0 announcement, and not one single "we". Where as if you look at the code in the "nutcracker" 3 repository it is 99% written by Matt. Sure the algorithms are ported from Sean's version, but the implementation is original, and often improved over Sean's PHP work. As a fellow developer, I just was enquiring as to Matt's participation in this release, as it did not appear as a joint announcement.

I'm not out to accuse Sean of being evil - anyone who chooses to release their stuff as open source gets a big pat on the back from me, and the effort spent on not just writing the software, but supporting it is admirable. But these melodramatic responses to my request for clarification are a tad off-base.

Regards,

-P

I have been profuse in my praise of Matt's port for months. In my announcement, I certainly could have spent more focus. I will say this again, Matt ported Nutcracker to C++. If you watch the vimeo videos you will hear how amazed i am at his accomplishment.

The purpose of my "Announcement" was to make a clear line that I will no longer bv developing Nutcracker 2.0 in php. There are people who are confused about what is xlights, why is it there. I wanted to make a timeline Nutcracker 1 =>2 =>3 so there would be continuity. I somehow created confusion with this "announcement". Sorry

I dont know C++ very well at all. Matt has made it possible for me to now switch from a web based php platform to a Windows based platform. There would be no Nutcracker 3.0 but for what Matt did.

I hope Matt will continue to add to the Nutcracker port he did, whether he wants to do that is up to him. I will continue to support this new platform.

This is harder for me since I have never developed on a Windows platform, have not used C++, have not used  wxWidgets. It is frustrating that I have ideas to implement and i have to go through web pages teaching me how to do it on this new platform. It is so much easier to modify functioning code than trying to write it from scratch. This is why Matt's port made it possible to switch over.

You made a point that the License.txt file is missing and that it is supposed to be there in the repository. Matt gave me his latest branch of code in January as a zip file. I checked in those hundreds of files into github. License.txt was not in that zip file. I went and a got a copy and added it into github after you raised a concern.

I again apologize if it appeared I am taking credit for what Matt did. As I have said many times, I was amazed.
Look to my original post I made dec 17th
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thanks
sean

[ptone]

Sean, you had already plenty clarified your intent for me elsewhere. While technically I'd call Matt's work an implementation of the nutcracker effects in xLights rather than a port of Nutcracker to C++, I'm not going to get overly hung up on that technical point - its all good.  I'd point out that xlights has always been cross platform, I don't know if that is the case for the version2 branch of xlights which nutcracker 3 is based on, but that might be how I can contribute to nutracker, as I'll look into building Mac binaries of nutcracker 3 files. So before other detractors jump in, THANK YOU Sean for the efforts you have put into building some great tools, and making them open source. I will probably also look at implementing some nutcracker's algorithms in my own tools at some point.

-P

[RJ]

Oh I don't think we need anymore detractors. Lets leave it everyone is clear on it and everyones happy.

RJ