▼
Posts: 1,216
Threads: 75
Joined: Jun 2011
Does anyone know what's the matter with Thomas Okken?
After his last Free42 bugfix we found that there was still a bug (with complex trig functions) and he wanted to fix it. Two weeks later it was still not fixed, so I asked him again here and he said he would do it the next weekend.
But also this "next weekend" is now more than 3 weeks ago and there's still no new version ... :-(
Franz
▼
Posts: 896
Threads: 183
Joined: Jul 2005
Maybe the Free42 is not his main occupation in life?
▼
Posts: 1,216
Threads: 75
Joined: Jun 2011
Quote:
Maybe the Free42 is not his main occupation in life?
Well, if it would be his main occupation I would expect a fix immediately. ;-)
But even if not, then I would say 5 weeks is just too long...
▼
Posts: 170
Threads: 7
Joined: Apr 2009
could be he's unwell, perhaps has the flu?
▼
Posts: 1,216
Threads: 75
Joined: Jun 2011
Quote:
could be he's unwell, perhaps has the flu?
And that's exactly why/what I have asked above - I haven't complained at all!
Posts: 429
Threads: 31
Joined: Jul 2011
Quote:
5 weeks is just too long...
Too long only if you had payed for the service. But Free42 is FREE! So let's be grateful and patient!
Hopefully Thomas Okken is well and the 'delay' is not due to some mishap or illness!
▼
Posts: 758
Threads: 9
Joined: Jul 2007
Quote:
Too long only if you had payed for the service. But Free42 is FREE! So let's be grateful and patient!
Exactly! An unfortunate sense of entitlement is apparent.
Even if it were not free, Free42 is the finest offering of its type anywhere for any platform. The Android version is the only calculator I'd have on my smartphone. Thank you Thomas!
Only a sense of gratitude and admiration is appropriate for Thomas Okken and Free42.
Posts: 32
Threads: 0
Joined: Jun 2009
Quote:
Well, if it would be his main occupation I would expect a fix immediately. ;-)
But even if not, then I would say 5 weeks is just too long...
Wow! do you expect this of all purchased software? you must be perpetually disappointed :)
Posts: 1,253
Threads: 117
Joined: Nov 2005
The fix was done, only one last case still missing involving one of the versions (I forget which one right one, either DECIMAL or BINARY). Thomas has always been very responsive.
Posts: 727
Threads: 43
Joined: Jul 2005
I've had other things on my mind. Why are you even asking this on this forum? Nobody here knows me personally; in case you want to ask about my health, well, my email address is not a secret.
Just be patient. I have no intention of abandoning Free42, but I have no intention of driving myself crazy over it, either. I'm sorry if my overly optimistic estimates have caused you inconvenience, and I do recognize that I have a tendency to be overly optimistic and that life tends to foil those optimistic plans (happens all the time at work, too, unfortunately), but that's just the way it is.
Sooner or later I will find the time to get the kind of sustained in-the-zone burst of activity that is needed for programming to be both productive and fun at the same time; I don't get that feeling with Free42 as often as in, say, 2005, when the project was still taking shape, but as you can see from the recent Android port, it does still happen occasionally. Fixing minor bugs usually does not require a big burst of activity, but even minor bugs can be harder than you think; some days I may crank out 500 lines of working code without breaking a sweat, while some other days I submit one single-line bug fix at the end of the day and go home exhausted. So it goes.
- Thomas
▼
Posts: 1,216
Threads: 75
Joined: Jun 2011
Quote:
Why are you even asking this on this forum? Nobody here knows me personally; in case you want to ask about my health, well, my email address is not a secret.
Ok, sorry that I've asked - will not happen again! :-(
Franz
▼
Posts: 896
Threads: 183
Joined: Jul 2005
Posts: 239
Threads: 55
Joined: Sep 2006
I think it is a matter of how things should be handled.
Maybe it would had been a good idea to send, in first place, a private message to Thomas asking politely how thing are going with the bug. Knowing him, he would have answered it promptly and you would have been updated about the issue.
Secondly, (and obviously, I am not a native) the question in your post seems to me a littler harsh. If, maybe, it had been phrased differently...
Regards,
Miguel
Posts: 1,368
Threads: 212
Joined: Dec 2006
I have been a supporter of Free42 for a number of years. I have donated a modest amount to the cause (not very much, but Thomas was most thankful at the time) and cheerfully paid the modest AppStore costs for Free42 and 42s for iPhone when they first came out.
I have been friendly enough with Thomas over the years to know that Free42 is but a passionate avocation and hardly his main purpose in life. Despite this, he has at times been very responsive to my queries when I have on occasion identified some obscure irregularities.
I have noticed over the past year that Free42 has seemingly gotten less of Thomas' attention. There was a stretch of several months without any revision. I assumed only that the man had gotten busy, and that the project had to take a back seat. As a grateful admirer and fan, I thought that I was obliged to be patient.
That said, I have to say that I bristle at the tone of your query. I suspect that if your bug report is not getting addressed as quickly as you would like, there is nothing at all wrong with Thomas, as you wonder. Rather, he is likely just addressing matters of greater importance.
Free42 is offered to us at little or no cost. I have no trouble cutting the developer some slack if he cannot immediately address my every whim or complaint. I just feel blessed that the great software exists.
Edited: 24 Oct 2011, 9:29 a.m.
▼
Posts: 1,216
Threads: 75
Joined: Jun 2011
Quote:
That said, I have to say that I bristle at the tone of your query.
I'm really wondering about what fuss is made here because of a simple question like "Does anyone know what's the matter with .....?".
What crazy world! ;-)
Franz
▼
Posts: 896
Threads: 183
Joined: Jul 2005
Who started the fuzz mewonders, and for what?
Crazy world indeed ;)
Posts: 1,253
Threads: 117
Joined: Nov 2005
Susceptibilities aside, I do see some "lost in the translation" issues behind all thus fuzz.
The "what's the matter with" is a tricky idiom to handle, and it's at the root of this issue.
I'm pretty sure there was no mean intention in the first place, so let's cut everybody some slack and move on.
Cheers,
ÁM
▼
Posts: 727
Threads: 43
Joined: Jul 2005
Quote:
I'm pretty sure there was no mean intention in the first place, so let's cut everybody some slack and move on.
Seconded.
Posts: 228
Threads: 7
Joined: Aug 2011
Franz,
I think some people on this forum forget that not everyone here is a native speaker of English (and American English at that).
The idiom "what's the matter with him?" is often used as a put-down
(see the 2nd entry of [link:http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/What's+the+matter%3F]http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/What's+the+matter?[/link]) even though it literally does not mean that.
A more neutral idiom would be "what is up with him?"
Edited: 24 Oct 2011, 2:51 p.m.
▼
Posts: 776
Threads: 25
Joined: Jun 2007
Quote:
A more neutral idiom would be "what is up with him?"
Still could be interpreted as a bit confrontational - "up with him" still could imply (at least to me) that one might be thinking that he could be deliberately not responding or hiding. In verbal communication, the tone of voice could affect the meaning of this. When writing, though, you loose that finesse.
I think even better here would be something like "I wonder if something has happened to Thomas. I haven't heard from him about a request I made a few weeks ago." And then, perhaps, describe the history, but without any real or implied expectation of (immediate or even delayed) response.
Posts: 1,830
Threads: 113
Joined: Aug 2005
Quote:
But even if not, then I would say 5 weeks is just too long...
In any language, that is impatient. Expressing impatience is not polite when the developer has given so many man-years to the development of a Free/Libre gift to you and everyone else who uses it. The appropriate response to frustration of this kind is either to fix the problem in source code, in a way that doesn't totally screw things up, or else to return the gift for your money back.
▼
Posts: 1,253
Threads: 117
Joined: Nov 2005
Yes of course - but Free isn't synonym with "Libre", but with "Gratis" instead :-)
Really, it's very easy to trip yourself up when using a second language - and I don't mean to imply you did!
Edited: 24 Oct 2011, 4:35 p.m.
▼
Posts: 1,216
Threads: 75
Joined: Jun 2011
Quote:
Really, it's very easy to trip yourself up when using a second language
Yes, and that's why I finally stop posting here now - I'm tired of all those accusations just because of a simple question.
Cheers,
Franz
Posts: 1,830
Threads: 113
Joined: Aug 2005
Free/Libre is FSF terminology meant to indicate that Free (capitalized) refers to freedom and not necessarily "free as in beer." In this case, the code is libre and often gratis. (You can pay for 42S derived applications, too. My belief is that those are all GPL compliant, or else have a separate license from Mr. Okken.)
You're right that gratis may be the more important consideration when deciding whether or not to complain about the speed of development, and in what terms.
Posts: 1,619
Threads: 147
Joined: May 2006
Last I checked Free42 was open source, have you considered fixing the bug yourself and submitting it?
|
