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Re: [pilot-db-list] Devs needing PDAs to test / Donations?
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From: <Cyb...@ao...> - 2004-05-03 05:51:53
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In a message dated 5/1/2004 9:58:18 PM US Mountain Standard Time, na...@ve... writes: > From: dav...@ya... > To: pil...@li... > > > Have you discussed with Tom or any of the other developers of > > putting up a Donate link? I certainly would be willing to donate > > $$ to the cause (I have more of this than time.) And perhaps > > others on the list would as well. This is the only discussion that there has been. I _was_ approached by someone a few weeks ago about someone who was interested in making a donation in return for some specific feature additions, but because of his short time frame and the large size of what he needed we decided it would make more sense to do it with me as a private contract. Then the project he was going to need it for fell through. > > If enough money is donated, you guys could pick up some actual new > > rev palms (PalmOS4 or higher) or Sonys, or whatever your > > preference is so you have your own test bed right in front of you. Lacking a modern Palm pilot is probably less of a development impediment than it sounds. The real problem is that the modern Palm Simulators (not the older Emulator, aka POSE) run only on Windows. I tend to run only Linux, which generally is a great development environment and historically has been well supported by Palm, but is not currently being supported much at all. So while having a new Palm would be better than nothing, having a working Simulator would actually be a much better situation. It's faster, smoother, allows one to switch and test different devices, and is easier to debug. Unfortunately, convincing Palm and the other manufacturers to do this---or to help get the Simulator working under Wine---is a much harder task than just buying a new device. > > I have also been accumulating Palm Bucks. If I get enough, I > > would even be willing to part with my dear, trusty old m130 if > > your interested... That might be a useful thing to have, although what would be more useful would be a device that supports high resolution. That's what's proving hardest to debug because the Emulator does not support it. > > But I think putting up a donate link might be the way to go. Not > > sure what the sourceforge rules are on this. > > What are your thoughts? SourceForge sent me mail a while ago strongly encouraging me to put up such a link. My thought was that we are too loosely organized to make use of such a donation right now. Equipment would be a possible use, but I'm not sure if it would be a good use of funds. Paying for a couple PalmSource trouble tickets might be another use that would serve us well in the future when we run into devlopment brick walls. > From: hol...@di... [mailto:hol...@di...] > Sent: Saturday, May 01, 2004 8:04 AM > > Donations? A definite NO!! This is an OpenSource program! I'm not as strongly against the idea as this. There may be points in the future where it would be useful, but probably not right now. > Whom should such a donation go to? I think the better question is for what, not for whom. If a donation of money or used equipment would improve the rate of development, I wouldn't argue against it. I'm just not sure it would right now. > It would be unfair if the 'old' programmers, who are not > active anymore, but on whose ideas this great program is > based on, do not benefit from such 'donations'. Well, if the donation is of testing equipment, I'd think it would be quite fair if it would go to anyone who is willing to commit to using it for increased testing. If that would either attract new people, or reinvolve old ones, I don't see much of a problem with fairness. > The best 'donation' that one can give is one's own time > by helping out. > There are many ways of helping out - Beta-Testing is the > easiest - one can make databases available that one > has made - one can help out with icons etc. I'd agree that this is absolutely true. Time is certainly my limiting factor right now. The testers that have been helping with the alpha-releases have helped things go a lot faster. > THIS is what is required - upholding the spirit of > OpenSource programs!! This is more precious than money! On the other hand, there are people (as stated above) who would like to help with development but currently have more money than time available to them. If that money could help the development, then it would be a valuable gift. But right now what we need most is more involvement on the development side, and I'm not sure the money could be put to a good enough use. But I wouldn't eliminate the idea. --nate ------------------------------------------------------- This SF.Net email is sponsored by: Oracle 10g Get certified on the hottest thing ever to hit the market... Oracle 10g. Take an Oracle 10g class now, and we'll give you the exam FREE. http://ads.osdn.com/?ad_id=3149&alloc_id=8166&op=click _______________________________________________ Pilot-db-list mailing list Pil...@li... https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/pilot-db-list I for one have been known to help dev many different projects including Stampede, SourceMage, and Wine. Lately though with all my work and a LOT of personal stuff getting in the way I am having more and more time taken away leaving me with little to do but read some email and go to bed. So for me if there is a way to donate to the project even though I have little time it would be great. Yes I do understand some people think opensource means spend no money, but this idea usually does not pan out very well in the real world. However I do respect nate's hold on accepting donations at this time due to not knowing where it should all go to best help out the project. If any ideas for hardware are good. I recommend putting up a "wish-list" on the website so if anyone has the hardware to donate they can instantly see it. Like for example would a 2mb Zire be a good thing only to test cpu and memory load of the database engine. What kind of high res palm would be a good idea to have to test the high res you cant on the emulator? |
