[ANNOUNCE] Umbra role-playing game 0.2 pre-alpha

[Mark 'Kamikaze' Hughes]

18 Apr 2001 22:56:04 -0700 in <9blulk$dtj$1 at panix6.panix.com>,
Aahz Maruch <aahz at panix.com> spake:
>In article <slrn9dsn5l.2i6f.kamikaze at kuoi.asui.uidaho.edu>,
>Mark 'Kamikaze' Hughes <kamikaze at kuoi.asui.uidaho.edu> wrote:
>>  Okay, nailed that down, too.  Try
>><http://kuoi.asui.uidaho.edu/~kamikaze/Umbra/umbra021.zip>
>>  Since I'd been using 2.0 pre-release at home, I guess it's time to
>>upgrade...  Or maybe not, as it already excludes the 1.5 users.
>Maybe you should just use source?

  There are two reasons not to: the practical, and the philosophical.

  The practical side is that people would have the urge to start
fiddling with the source, and I *really* can't spare the time to even
hear about their diffs, let alone use them, especially since I refactor
mercilessly so the code base changes rapidly.  And they would start
fiddling with the source, because the only people who are likely to run
it at this point are Python programmers.

  I'd rather hear high-level suggestions; "stories" in Extreme
Programming terms.

  The philosophical side is that it's my code.  Yes, I believe in code
ownership.  If I *choose* to give people access to my source, then
that's fine but if I choose not to, then that's also fine.  Now, when it
gets to a stable, basically finished state, I do plan to release it as
open source and start working on a multiplayer, server-side,
browser-client version.  That's likely to be a year or so in the future,
though.  Until then, it's going to be distributed as .pyo files (and I
will take a very, VERY dim view of anyone decompiling them and
distributing the source, as that is a copyright violation and I can and
will take action; think how cranky I normally am, and then multipy that
by a factor of 10).

  That I even have to *state* that indicates that a certain group of
people have really done a job of poisoning the well of software
development.  I loathe and despise the communist types like St*llm*n who
want to prevent anyone from owning their own software.  Don't go there.

  Not that I'm suggesting that you had that in mind, but those are the
consequences of "just use source".

-- 
 <a href="http://kuoi.asui.uidaho.edu/~kamikaze/"> Mark Hughes </a>
"I will tell you things that will make you laugh and uncomfortable and really
fucking angry and that no one else is telling you.  What I won't do is bullshit
you.  I'm here for the same thing you are.  The Truth." -Transmetropolitan #39