Live data from Hacker News

WiringPi – deprecated

wiringpi.com

81–90 of 151 posts

Re: WiringPi – deprecated

#81

First of all, sorry to hear that WiringPi is deprecated, and I would like to thank the author for all the effort he put into this project. When I read his blog post on his reasoning, I can't help but be reminded of the feud between xscreensaver's author and Debian maintainers. Debian maintainers refused to upgrade the app's version and refused to remove the 'For support contact the author's email' notice. The author'…

Yeah but this guy handled it respectfully. He's even releasing a final version. So people can fork it and do what they will. You can't really blame him. 10 years is a long time to maintain something anyway.

Re: WiringPi – deprecated

#82

I have used WiringPi along my side of work and I am thankful to the author for creating and maintaining it, but honestly I don't understand the motivation behind offering a free product with email support. There are many different people on the Internet with different cultural backgrounds, experience levels and work ethic and unfortunately it's not realistic to expect each of your users to share the same values as yo…

Yep I have a couple of anonymous MIT softwares out there with decent documentation. that's all you get from me, along with quarterly or so updates. I do it for fun not to please everyone.

Re: WiringPi – deprecated

#83
post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think asking the author to comply with the license, or at least enable others to comply with the license, is being a "complete ass".

Aside from whether or not he was being an ass, he was incorrect. The license are rights the author grants other people. The author can release binaries without sources or under any license they desire; just because they also release it under the LGPL does not compel them to provide sources when they distribute it.

Exactly. so many people don't have a clue about GPL and LGPL. If you're the originator you have more rights than people who you make it available to.

Re: WiringPi – deprecated

#84
post #14

I can empathize with most of this, but I can't say I understand the "last straw" bit. How is there anything wrong with DanielK's request?

It's a subtle thing for sure. Just because he prefaces it with "not to be an ass" doesn't justify being an ass. Overall, it's still phrased in a demanding way.

He wasn't being an ass, DanielK was. It's HIS original software, he can distribute as he pleases.

Re: WiringPi – deprecated

#85

I read this and still don’t understand what is the issue behind the drama. If you don’t want to support it, then don’t; if someone stole your public domain work, contact the EFF or more realistically just understand it’s cost of doing business. We all get tired at some point and move on, you don’t owe anyone anything. And thanks for the library!

He wanted to let the users of his software know why he was quitting. Not everything has to be honey soaked drivel. He gave his opinion. It had a little bit of well deserved ranting in there but it did let everyone know that the library is deprecated and you're now on your own with it.

Re: WiringPi – deprecated

#86

Step 1. Person A makes some piece of software under an open source license. (GPL) Step 2. This piece of software becomes widely used, primarily since it's open source licensed Step 3. (Modern variation) Person A feels cheated for not getting rich and creates some kind of drama. This doesn't make any sense at all, to me.

That's not at all what this is about. He didn't want money, he just didn't want to be treated like crap.

Re: WiringPi – deprecated

#88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, it's just an uncharitable pot shot when the article is perfectly relatable when taken at face value. I'd probably even add your mentality, ubiquitous on HN, to his list. People come out of the woodwork to shit on others. It seems even moreso when it's just a hobby project. You're basically taking one last snipe at him while he exits the theater. For what? Is this what you thought the world needed more of?

Ages ago, I wrote and maintained some Windows open source stuff. It wasn't GPL, but it was "here's the source code, and a binary version, have fun!". I had a little niche of a certain type of tool in the Windows world, if you searched for how to do a specific thing, my tools would show up. Most of it included my real name and email address in the executable and DLLs details tab, as well as the source code. I was the…

Learned my lesson. If I release something now I put it under MIT license and add some decent documentation and hopefully the code is well written and commented enough that any half way decent programmer can make use of it. No contact mail, no grief.

Re: WiringPi – deprecated

#89
post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think asking the author to comply with the license, or at least enable others to comply with the license, is being a "complete ass".

Aside from whether or not he was being an ass, he was incorrect. The license are rights the author grants other people. The author can release binaries without sources or under any license they desire; just because they also release it under the LGPL does not compel them to provide sources when they distribute it.

Regardless of the legal situation, it would be very unusual to release something under a GPL-like license without the source, since then no one else could comply with the license since they would be unable to provide the modified source.

I think we can agree that it would not at all be weird to expect that GPL-licensed project would provide the source. Any project with multiple contributors may be legally compelled to do so. Simply asking for it is probably not being a complete ass, even if the author was wrong about the legal ramifications.

At most it could perhaps be "annoying" or a "slight ass". Being a "complete ass" would perhaps be insisting after an initial request was rebuffed or whatever.

Re: WiringPi – deprecated

#90

I have used WiringPi along my side of work and I am thankful to the author for creating and maintaining it, but honestly I don't understand the motivation behind offering a free product with email support. There are many different people on the Internet with different cultural backgrounds, experience levels and work ethic and unfortunately it's not realistic to expect each of your users to share the same values as yo…

This sums it all
Post reply on HN