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Post by George on Jan 15, 2023 16:02:33 GMT -5
Hi,
I've been struggling with handling SPFLite 'chores' along with other family requirements.
SPFLite has simply been occupying too much of my time, to the detriment of other things.
So, I will be backing off, and spending much less time on SPFLite.
I'm not gone --- just not spending the hours I currently have been doing on this thing.
Firstly, I will try and roll out a release with current fixes included. Then things will slow down. If commercial software can exist with outstanding bugs for long periods, so can SPFLite. They'll get corrected when time permits.
It's harder as I get older to keep this up, all kinds of little 'niggles' are telling me to back off. This may be a time when someone else should commit to SPFLite support. It's not a minor commitment, this is not a trivial piece of code.
Please, somebody speak up so there is a future for SPFLite.
George
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Post by Robert on Jan 15, 2023 16:53:35 GMT -5
Maybe it's time to remove Suggestions. We both know I am the worst offender thereof. Pipe dreams are for the young. 80 generally doesn't describe that.
Or, if you don't want to outright remove it, maybe Suggestion items could have a 'poll' attached to them. Then, you'd only look at something that enough users voted on.
Here's a shock: I will bet real money that most users won't vote for ANYTHING, EVER. That should tell you where their priorities lie.
As for someone taking over and involving themselves in the future of SPFLite, need I remind you that I tried getting the attention of users about this (a year ago?) or so. All I got was crickets, and the 'future of SPFLite' item got yanked on account of zero replies.
I don't think there are users that know SFPLite as good as me, but there are users that know the code better. Unfortunately it's hard to do one without the other.
And, between my depression and my chronic illnesses, I won't live long enough to take this on, and I'd be pretty useless if I tried. Sorry.
I believe you are your own worst enemy here. You tried "backing off" before, and it lasted a whole month or so before you were back in the thick of things.
Maybe you could try this as a two-pronged approach. Concentrate on bug fixes, and any other changes should be limited to macro enhancements, so that users can solve their own problems. Between those two, bug fixes would have priority.
Anything else should have polls attached to them. If users won't stand up and vote for what they want, why the heck should YOU do anything about it?
The reality is, when you stop coding, that will be the "PB 10 moment" for SPFLite. From then on, it will just "coast", warts and all, and that will be it.
All good things come to an end eventually. Sigh.
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Post by Stefan on Jan 16, 2023 7:41:19 GMT -5
I wondered a few times in the past if I wanted to throw my hat in the ring, but decided each time I do not have the time to learn and then do this properly.
I think there is already a lot of user customisation that can be achieved using existing tools and features
Regarding 'polls/votes for changes' I think Robert is right, but the reason for a lack of feedback is probably only partially attributable to user apathy. I suspect it owes more to one or more of these aspects: (1) SPFLite does what I need - I don't need anything more. Robert & George, take that as a compliment! (2) I didn't even know there was a forum. (3) I knew there was a forum, but I'd only visit it to report a bug that really annoys me. (4) I read forum post occasionally/regularly, but I dare not post.
I do wonder how many SPFLite users are out there. Maybe there are relatively few. Or maybe there are many, a subset of whom 'watch' the forum as 'guests', but as a guest, you cannot reply to posts.
As I type this, I note... Users Online in the Last 24 Hours
1 Staff, 4 Members, 130 Guests.
R, George, chaat, Stefan
Maybe it is time to "functionally stablise" SPFLite and just fix actual bugs going forward. The current beta versions are very fragile in the AUTO Colorisation space. The latest changes were partially driven by my context/'SCOPE' suggestion when the concept became too ambitious. And in v23014 the return of the previously fixed error that not all occurrences on the same line are hilited with a CHANGE ALL command iillustrates the "wheels within wheels" complexity of the code base.
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chaat
Sophomore Member
Posts: 59 
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Post by chaat on Jan 17, 2023 14:30:20 GMT -5
I will admit that I'm not a current user of SPFLITE as I own a perpetual license of Command Technology's SPF/SE 365. However I have used and supported SPFLITE since back when it was shareware. Now that Command Technology is out of business and now longer available, I think that it is even more important to keep SPFLITE available as it is a very capable ISPF like editor.
That being said, personally I would prefer to concentrate on the EDIT functionality and try to adhere to the KISS principle. For example, I would not use SPFLITE to compare files as there are other utilities to do that. The only "feature" of SPF/SE 365 which I would like to see in SPFLITE is a simple way to do block mode cut, copy and paste.
As for the use of MACROS, I suspect that very users do anything more than pretty straight forward macros. I've seen discussions with George where a lot of time was spent on trying to support complicated macros. I'm not suggesting that is not valuable to the people using those macros. However the time spent on those efforts probably benefits a very small percentage of SPFLITE users.
Just my perspective...
free advice is often worth what you paid for it
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