Maiden speech from an old man

[Richard Gaskin]

larry wrote:

> I've said it before and I'll say it again: I wish RunRev would allow
> me to add MY OWN notes to the Dictionary.

I've said it before* and I'll say it again:
I wish anyone here wanted this sort of notebook badly enough to just
write it as a plugin.

I appreciate your submitting an enhancement request for this:
<http://quality.runrev.com/show_bug.cgi?id=10887>

That's a necessary first step, and given sufficient resources I'm sure
the team would love to add that themselves.

But with LC being open source, RunRev has a sizable full-time staff
working on a tool that is given away for free to a majority of its
users.  Right now the main priorities are completing the features
already on their plate, so anything like this is unlikely to be
actionable for many months.

Open source software is a wonderful gift, but it works best when it
creates a gift economy in which everyone who relies on LiveCode
considers what they want from the platform, find those things they can
take care of themselves, and then do it.

We've seen some great strides in this budding open source process
already, with many new features and enhancements brought to the engine
through contributions from Monte Goulding, Jan Schenkel, Mark Wieder,
and many others, and I'm pleased to report that as of this morning all
of the IDE "FIX" items have been confirmed and folded into the main
branch for the next build - thanks to Mike Kerner, Mark Wieder, and 
others for providing those.

As you wrote:
> I wish RunRev would "shore up" their existing project
> before moving on to other stuff.

That's very much their focus.

Which is why I find suggestions like yours potentially exciting 
opportunities for the community to take care of the simpler things that 
can be done outside of the main branch.

A notebook plugin that ties in with the Dictionary wouldn't take long to 
make, and for those who want it would be a nice thing to have and share.

If anyone here has sufficient interest in starting this project I'd be 
happy to make a section in the forums where your team can flesh it out 
and see it through to completion.


> Just my opinion, so please don't flame me. Larry

On the contrary, it's a good suggestion and an excellent example of the 
sorts of things we as a community can do for ourselves to get immediate 
results now, leaving the core dev team to complete their engine commitments.


* <http://lists.runrev.com/pipermail/use-livecode/2014-March/199733.html>

-- 
  Richard Gaskin
  LiveCode Community Manager
  richard at livecode.org