OT: Command-line blues (ImageMagick)

[Graham Samuel]

Richard, far be it from me to criticise the obviously clever and dedicated people who have created IM and continue to update it as free software for the good of their community: my point really is that "their community" isn't mine, or really their universe isn't mine. I think the core users of IM and other tools of that sort are primarily living in a command-line *nix-oriented world where considerable effort on the part of users just to carry out day-to-day activities is acceptable in a way which just ain't so in the world of Windows or Mac. Really as one of those GUI-using consumers, I should be, and am, glad to get crumbs from the open source table - I say this without intended irony. Having had, virtually for the first time in over 40 years, to rub up against command-lines, faceless apps, actually having to compile a program not written by me before I can use it etc etc, I guess I am suffering from a certain level of culture shock and puzzlement. But I am not claiming any superiority - indeed I am also having to come to terms with my own laziness about all this.

Best

Graham

On Sun, 30 Oct 2011 17:10:17 -0700, Richard Gaskin <ambassador at fourthworld.com> wrote:

> 
> Graham Samuel wrote:
> 
>> I did not realise that MacPorts will create a 'fully functional
>> binary', so thanks very much for that info. I have some hopes after
>> all for my geography teachers.
>> 
>> <rant> If this is the case, then why the heck haven't the producers
>> of ImageMagick gone so far as to do this?
> 
> I'll bet you could ask for a refund. ;)
> 
> ImageMagick is community software, free and open source.
> 
> While there is a main pool of developers who maintain it, there's 
> nothing stopping anyone from enhancing it further.
> 
> Indeed, that's how projects like this work.
> 
> If anyone here has the time to make this sort of Mac package, they're 
> free to do so under the Apache license ImageMagick is made available under.
> 
> ImageMagick represents a tremendous amount of effort as it is; I 
> certainly can't fault them if they haven't gone further to make it even 
> more convenient for every platform.
> 
> Given what the core team has put into it, it doesn't seem too much to 
> ask that the community can give something back by making those sorts of 
> builds available, so the core team can continue to focus on the trickier 
> stuff they do so well.
> 
> --
>  Richard Gaskin