Posted by RickLutowski on Mar 26, 2023; 5:39am
URL: https://forum.jogamp.org/Java-3D-CAD-program-volunteer-opportunities-tp4042337p4042343.html

gouesse wrote:
> using a versioning system that way is terribly inefficient and it doesn't help to track the changes

From a purely technical standpoint, you are correct.  I'm not happy with using github purely as a distribution mechanism; it would be easier and cleaner to post the distros to my website.  However, several non-technical considerations influenced the decision to (mis)use github as a distribution mechanism.  These are: (1) age, (2) collaborators, and (3) CM Creator content.

Age:  When version 0.1 of CM Creator was ready for release, I was over 70 years old. When you get to that point in life, issues relating to personal longevity start to influence your thinking.  You might have 20 years left, or 20 months, or 20 minutes. Planning would be far easier if you know which, but you don't. So you hope for the best, but plan for the worst.

Collaborators:  CM Creator has been a one-person project from the beginning.  Among my friends, one programs in Java, but his interests lie elsewhere. Other close friends have backgrounds in design or modeling, but none are programmers.  That left just me to pursue CM Creator.

CM Creator content:  Most people learn a lot in 50 years of professional life. Some choose to pass on part of that knowledge by writing books. Others, by making movies. Others teach or give seminars. For me, it is by writing CM Creator (and one book on software development, which CM Creator utilizes.)

When it came time to release v0.1, all these factors came into play:

"Posting the distro on my website would be clean and easy.  However, my website dies when I do. With no collaborators, there are no other repositories or sources. Thus, when my website dies, CM Creator and all the unique knowledge contained within it dies too.

"Posting the distro on github is tacky; github is not well-suited to that.  However, github will not die when I and my website do.  Without collaborators, development will stop and there will be no other sources, but all releases will survive as long as github survives.  Like the Ark of the Covenant in Raiders, CM Creator may become lost among thousands of other projects in the github warehouse, but it will still be there waiting for some future explorer to re-discover its secrets.

Survival or death?  I will choose survival, and post CM Creator to github."

Of course, collaborators would totally change this analysis, and its conclusions.  CM Creator could use github as a collaboration and version control mechanism as intended. Distributions would be posted at public locations as determined by the development team.  Development would not cease when I'm gone; the unique knowledge contained within CM Creator would become known to the development team and evolve through their continuing innovations.

Thus, the decision of how CM Creator utilizes github going forward is up to you, the reader.