Developer issues discussion (GZDB split)

[Major Cooke]

Long story short, if MaxED is being serious -- and I don't have any reason to doubt this -- someone else is going to have to take up the mantle of developing it now if you want it back.

Good luck and God speed.

[Rachael]

I think a lot of people have forgotten that MaxED was doing all this work with no compensation. True, the texture browser may have been an unpopular change, but at least once did he request someone do a pull request to change it back.

[ZZYZX]

1) there is a pull request,
2) would be nice to know for sure if MaxED is serious or not. I could add/update certain critical features, but only if I'm sure that its not going to be done by him. ZScript support, for example.

[Kinsie]

Long story short, if MaxED is being serious -- and I don't have any reason to doubt this -- someone else is going to have to take up the mantle of developing it now if you want it back.

Good luck and God speed.

2) would be nice to know for sure if MaxED is serious or not. I could add/update certain critical features, but only if I'm sure that its not going to be done by him. ZScript support, for example.

I suspect he'll be back sooner rather than later... he'll run into issues - either with grappling with Ken Silverman's DOS-era teenage programming, or with the... shall we say... opinionated personalities that currently maintain the primary source port and editor fork for that game - that'll make our Win32-era code and mild disagreements seem comparatively pleasant.

[ZZYZX]

To be honest all that has to be done for more user friendly Duke mapping is implementing proper user interface in mapster32. Either using Qt (I love Qt!) or actually writing the UI from scratch. Qt is preferable
The hardest part would be implementing custom canvas for running the build engine (i.e. run it inside another window).

[Major Cooke]

I suspect he'll be back sooner rather than later... he'll run into issues - either with grappling with Ken Silverman's DOS-era teenage programming, or with the... shall we say... opinionated personalities that currently maintain the primary source port and editor fork for that game - that'll make our Win32-era code and mild disagreements seem comparatively pleasant.

Agreed. All that old stuff, just... ugh. Can't think about it without getting a nasty shiver going through my body. The blood voxel editor comes to mind in particular...

[Ozymandias81]

@MaxED
Just for curiosity: today I have lost 3 hours in order to find an issue with a script... but I was totally wrong: it was a Dialogue problem, where I had just a missed branch.. Ugh!
Could be possible to add a syntax checker or whatever is called for DIALOGUE lumps? Something that could give you at least clues after you compile a map script... this would be extremely appreciated, if possible.

Thanks in advance,

OZY

[Gez]

Normally there is such a thing in GZDoom, so just look at the errors and warnings?

[Ozymandias81]

Unfortunately doesn't happen anything even in GZDoom if there is just a missed branch, that's why I wasn't able to notice it

[TerminusEst13]

I think a lot of people have forgotten that MaxED was doing all this work with no compensation.

I really don't see what this has to do with anything at all, considering all of us are doing work in this community for no compensation. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Rachael]

Because it's so easy to take something for granted until someone decides to up and leave because it isn't worth the hassle.

Look - I know the texture browser thing wasn't that great but at that point at least the program was still being maintained. Simple as that.

That being said - MaxED may have been on his way out anyway and that just broke the last straw, but still...

[Caligari87]

Unfortunately I think being so helpful early on ultimately shot MaxED in the foot. New features and bugfixes were so fast they became expected, and when that met up with feature freezes, split camps on UI design, or other things he wasn't willing to do (for whatever reason), it caused a lot of self-perpetuating backlash because it was a harsh deviation from the "normal" development pattern.

I've kinda thought for a while that GZDB's development model was unsustainable. If he really is dropping it (and not just taking a breather), hopefully either someone else can keep it maintained or perhaps SLADE will grow to fill the inevitable gap.

[Kappes Buur]

I really don't see what this has to do with anything at all,

If that is the case you have a lot of growing up to do.
Any further comments about your attitude I will keep to myself.

considering all of us are doing work in this community for no compensation. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

It's called a hobby.
MaxED and so many other programmers are providing you with tools to pursue your hobby , for free.
Without those tools you would be up Schitt's Creek without the proverbial paddles.

For my part I am grateful to all of them spending time and effort to make my hobby ever more enjoyable.

[wildweasel]

However harsh you might have put that, Kappes, I think you might have just repeated Term's point back at him. =/

[ZZYZX]

GZDB being a hobby project does not mean we can't comment it or request features. This does mean however that we can't DEMAND features as we can't provide anything in return, but don't be like "stfu and praise maxed for at least doing something".

Also, the rather emotional behavior observable here (by MaxED and his last post above) is quite wrong.
In such a situation I'd personally at least warn everyone if I'm seriously going to stop working on some project.
Good example of this is that large portals commit, where I directly said that it's being on hold and whoever wants to maintain it can continue. In the end, Graf did.