PCGen sellout

[Henry]

...There is my second problem. I bought E-Tools and I'm using PCGen. What are my options here? Sureley I have to stick to one programm otherwise supporting two Charakter-Generating programms at the same time doesn't make any sense to me...

...Now, CMP is a company with all views on how to make profit (and rightly so). I'm not sure of this but my guess is that they will close down one programm that is not generating enough sales for the effort done by the employees...

The answer to me is obvious - support the one that supports you best. If that's both of them, then so be it.

And CMP will not shut down either program. I feel like I can state this pretty definitely. (Mynex may still correct me, though.)

Why?

1) CMP does not own E-Tools. They did not buy E-Tools, but has a license to support it (and sell it, I believe.) Only WotC has the option to abandon it.

2) PCGen, the program, will never be shut down. Only lack of interest will ever shut it down. This is because even if tomorrow Bryan were to take leave of his senses and say, "I'm shutting down PCGen," and assuming he retains ownership of the name and can do this, then being a LGPL program, anyone who wanted to could take the code base, rally the troops, and continue on without Bryan and CMP, under another name, as a different program. No harm, no foul. PCGen, as long as there are a barrel of monkey still supporting it, will NEVER die. It's the entire founding principal of open source - that development never dies on a good program.

Any problems with the above, Mynex?

-------------------------

Also, thanks to Mynex, Barak, et. al. for helping me keep my facts straight. It's great to know that you've got proof to back you up, and even greater to know that the proof you've got is even better than you thought.

One strong suggestion, Mynex -- PLEASE don't let the XML conversion die out. As much as I like LST files, the format drives me crazy when creating from scratch.

 

[Mynex]

The answer to me is obvious - support the one that supports you best. If that's both of them, then so be it.

And CMP will not shut down either program. I feel like I can state this pretty definitely. (Mynex may still correct me, though.)

Why?

1) CMP does not own E-Tools. They did not buy E-Tools, but has a license to support it (and sell it, I believe.) Only WotC has the option to abandon it.

2) PCGen, the program, will never be shut down. Only lack of interest will ever shut it down. This is because even if tomorrow Bryan were to take leave of his senses and say, "I'm shutting down PCGen," and assuming he retains ownership of the name and can do this, then being a LGPL program, anyone who wanted to could take the code base, rally the troops, and continue on without Bryan and CMP, under another name, as a different program. No harm, no foul. PCGen, as long as there are a barrel of monkey still supporting it, will NEVER die. It's the entire founding principal of open source - that development never dies on a good program.

Any problems with the above, Mynex?

-------------------------

Also, thanks to Mynex, Barak, et. al. for helping me keep my facts straight. It's great to know that you've got proof to back you up, and even greater to know that the proof you've got is even better than you thought.

One strong suggestion, Mynex -- PLEASE don't let the XML conversion die out. As much as I like LST files, the format drives me crazy when creating from scratch.

yup yup yup to the above stuff...

As for the XML thing, not a chance it's gonna die for PCGen. e-Tools? we have to see. I'd like to go XML and have a shared format, thereby making one set of data files to use, but there's a lot of inherent problems with that, that we'd have to overcome.

But we're gonna try at least.

 

[Hardhead]

quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by Morik


I congratulate WOTc too but in a positive way. Remember TSR? That was a tough company. WOTc is much softer and friendlier, don't you think? (Hope you will not punch me too hard for my last statement ;-) )
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



That was true until they were bought by Ha$bro and Peter Atkinson left.

I think they're definitly "harder" now, post-Hasbro. But not as bad as TSR, at least not yet.

 

[smetzger]

Scott,

Yes, for now, they will remain 2 seperate formats. Why? Because swapping both programs to the same format at once is a logistical nightmare (not to mention WAY overly ambitious at this stage)... e-Tools needs some TLC before any drastic changes to it's format is even conceivable.

So it's not a 'No it's not going to happen period' thing... it's a 'Give us a chance to evaluate everything first' thing.

If your first realease of Splat Book files has two different formats, then you will most likely have to continue to release two different formats. Once you have a file format, then its difficult to change this file format, especially if the only reason for change is to be more standardized. I may be wrong, maybe you will change formats mid-stream.

It may be a logistical nightmare, overly ambitious, and not realistic to accomplish in the given time. But, that doesn't mean that I am not a little bit disapointed at the missed opportunity for creating what would most likely become the defacto standard format for D&D files.

I am sorry if it sounded like I was blaming you for 'messing up' this 'opportunity'. I understand the added work that making one file format would entail.

Again, I am not slamming your design decisions. Especially since I am not privy to all the details. I am merely expressing my disapointment in a missed opportunity. Even if I was on your development team and was privy to all the details and I concurred that it was best to have two different formats for the initial realease, I would still be disapointed in the missed opportunity.

Thanks,
Scott Metzger

 

[Mynex]

If your first realease of Splat Book files has two different formats, then you will most likely have to continue to release two different formats. Once you have a file format, then its difficult to change this file format, especially if the only reason for change is to be more standardized. I may be wrong, maybe you will change formats mid-stream.

It may be a logistical nightmare, overly ambitious, and not realistic to accomplish in the given time. But, that doesn't mean that I am not a little bit disapointed at the missed opportunity for creating what would most likely become the defacto standard format for D&D files.

I am sorry if it sounded like I was blaming you for 'messing up' this 'opportunity'. I understand the added work that making one file format would entail.

Again, I am not slamming your design decisions. Especially since I am not privy to all the details. I am merely expressing my disapointment in a missed opportunity. Even if I was on your development team and was privy to all the details and I concurred that it was best to have two different formats for the initial realease, I would still be disapointed in the missed opportunity.

Thanks,
Scott Metzger

Actually, switching the data files from access to XML and plain text to XML isn't that hard, as long as there is a converter to do it, manually, yea, would be nightmare.

That's not really the problem, the problem is making sure the underlying code accepts/can handle the different format, and that's where things get hairy. That's why we're doing the 2 formats for now, with _hopes_ of going 1 format down the road, it's all dependant upon the coding issues that will most definately arise from trying to do so (and mostly from e-Tools not PCGen issues).

So while it may be an opportunity to do it from the get go, it's not a viable opportunity (and if you saw the code for e-Tools, you'd be a convert in half a heartbeat on that one *sigh*). So we make the best we can, and go from here, hopefully, to everyone's satisfaction!