Blog: Post-vacational resolutions

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gigaherz
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Blog: Post-vacational resolutions

Post by gigaherz »

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gonzoMD
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Re: Blog: Post-vacational resolutions

Post by gonzoMD »

Gracias amigo.
Thanks for every line of code you wrote. I hope you'll be happier with the other tasks you'll get here. Also good luck with your other projects.
The way you went was the right decision.
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Black_Fox
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Re: Blog: Post-vacational resolutions

Post by Black_Fox »

Yeah, I hope that the other projects help and your passion for ReactOS doesn't dwindle. And thanks for the shell :mrgreen:

EDIT: fixed a typo
Last edited by Black_Fox on Tue Jan 27, 2015 10:56 am, edited 1 time in total.
middings
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Re: Blog: Post-vacational resolutions

Post by middings »

Thank you gigaherz, especially for the articles.
simbo69
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Re: Blog: Post-vacational resolutions

Post by simbo69 »

Gigaherz You should us tell about what your other projects are, if it is not too personal. Who knows, someone here may want to assist you to succeed in those projects faster, so that you can come back to continue with reactos. :D
gigaherz
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Re: Blog: Post-vacational resolutions

Post by gigaherz »

simbo69 wrote:Gigaherz You should us tell about what your other projects are, if it is not too personal. Who knows, someone here may want to assist you to succeed in those projects faster, so that you can come back to continue with reactos. :D
Well, they are mostly gamedev-related, but I don't want to say exactly what until I have something to show. If things go well, I'll probably start an indiegogo campaign in a few months, and then I'll sneakily publicise my project all over the place. ;P
chrisv5
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Re: Blog: Post-vacational resolutions

Post by chrisv5 »

In other words, the shell has been abandoned again
gigaherz
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Re: Blog: Post-vacational resolutions

Post by gigaherz »

chrisv5 wrote:In other words, the shell has been abandoned again
Yep. It takes someone a lot crazier than me (or a whole lot more dedicated) not to get burned out after a while.
Webunny
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Re: Blog: Post-vacational resolutions

Post by Webunny »

Well, that's all fine and well, and I don't know the contract, so I don't know if there was a time-period (or goal-accomplishment) the contract was supposed to last, but in the end, it boils down to the question: what now?

I imagine that the money (that is left) is still there, so is one going to search for another coder to finish the shell etc.?

Speaking of which...: when will there be a next IGG project? The new year has long started, and, without the 'thorium'-escapade, it would be about a year later, now. Any plans of invigorating the project with another donation-raising-effort of some kind?

Giga, I'm a bit ambivalent towards this. At the one hand, you did an excellent job, and no doubt it is a tiring one, so I understand your feelings. On the other hand, I really wished you had finished the last parts of this particular job, as - strictly professional speaking - you were paid to do. Maybe they should have included a bonus when the job is satisfactory finished.
Pi_User5
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Re: Blog: Post-vacational resolutions

Post by Pi_User5 »

In other words, the shell has been abandoned again
Looks like a new shell will have to be written in a few years. :cry:
I use ReactOS on real hardware. Will you? My Computers: https://www.reactos.org/wiki/PC_ROS_Rigs Go all the way to the bottom.

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gigaherz
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Re: Blog: Post-vacational resolutions

Post by gigaherz »

Webunny wrote:Giga, I'm a bit ambivalent towards this. At the one hand, you did an excellent job, and no doubt it is a tiring one, so I understand your feelings. On the other hand, I really wished you had finished the last parts of this particular job, as - strictly professional speaking - you were paid to do. Maybe they should have included a bonus when the job is satisfactory finished.
My contract wasn't really defined for a specific job/task. They paid me to develop ros, and the ongoing task was the shell. It was always the plan to switch to other tasks when I was sufficiently done with the shell. I couldn't continue that way and remain sane. So I had to make a decision, or risk getting to hate ros, which I really don't want to happen. A bonus wouldn't have mattered, since I never worked on ros for the money, I am able to work on ros thanks to the money (otherwise I wouldn't be able to eat ;P).
Pi_User5 wrote:
In other words, the shell has been abandoned again
Looks like a new shell will have to be written in a few years. :cry:
Woah, no! The new code isn't wasted at all. People can just pick it up and improve it.
Tonix
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Re: Blog: Post-vacational resolutions

Post by Tonix »

gigaherz wrote: So I had to make a decision, or risk getting to hate ros, which I really don't want to happen.
I can understand you decision, I work as professional programmer and some time i'm really disgusted to open the IDE
and work on the same application again and again....

I really hate some application i work on.... but while the time pass this adversion go down...

Looking for and pointing out bugs in ReacOs is a very useful distraction for me... i wish i have more time to spend on it...

Hope you will soon return to do your great work on ReactOs, if not on the shell on other part of it!

Thank You very much for you work!
Webunny
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Re: Blog: Post-vacational resolutions

Post by Webunny »

gigaherz wrote:
Webunny wrote:Giga, I'm a bit ambivalent towards this. At the one hand, you did an excellent job, and no doubt it is a tiring one, so I understand your feelings. On the other hand, I really wished you had finished the last parts of this particular job, as - strictly professional speaking - you were paid to do. Maybe they should have included a bonus when the job is satisfactory finished.
My contract wasn't really defined for a specific job/task. They paid me to develop ros, and the ongoing task was the shell. It was always the plan to switch to other tasks when I was sufficiently done with the shell. I couldn't continue that way and remain sane. So I had to make a decision, or risk getting to hate ros, which I really don't want to happen. A bonus wouldn't have mattered, since I never worked on ros for the money, I am able to work on ros thanks to the money (otherwise I wouldn't be able to eat ;P).

But how will it go, then? I mean, if it was just that undefined, and basically 'you get paid for working on ROS', then are you now continue to be paid as long as you work on ROS and *are* you working on something else of ROS right now? I guess it was done more informal, but this is why we always ask with an IT-project to be done - don't know the exact English term - "in regie"; this is, the scope gets defined, and the cost of the project is determined on that, and the IT-company have to make sure it fulfils the requirements put therein, or they don't get paid (or not the full agreed on price, because what was delivered wasn't agreed on neither, in that case). In my experience, that's the surest way to have a certain goal for a set price. A more formal approach would benefit ROS for specific targets (and getting them reached). Of course, the pay must be worthwhile too, then, and the relationship with the coder also a more formal one (or at least, more professional, so even when one finds it boring, one just grinds his teeth and continues). Like most (boring parts of) jobs are done. :-)

As said, I can understand where you're coming from, and in a more informal setting, and with a broad, undefined goal as 'working on ROS', I can understand you decide to quit that and move to something else... but, objectively speaking, I think you realise it's better to have one properly finished working part of ROS, then 5 things that are started but halfway abandoned. Is there anyone else that can fill in with the shell? How much, would you say, is it finished? Near 50%? 80%? 90%?
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gigaherz
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Re: Blog: Post-vacational resolutions

Post by gigaherz »

Webunny wrote:But how will it go, then? I mean, if it was just that undefined, and basically 'you get paid for working on ROS', then are you now continue to be paid as long as you work on ROS and *are* you working on something else of ROS right now?
No, I'm not currently in an active contract. I'm on a sortof "hiatus" until we decide exactly what I will be working on, and then I will start again with the new conditions, part-time instead of full time. Meanwhile, I'm focusing on my personal project, which is coming along nicely (so far).
Webunny wrote: As said, I can understand where you're coming from, and in a more informal setting, and with a broad, undefined goal as 'working on ROS', I can understand you decide to quit that and move to something else... but, objectively speaking, I think you realise it's better to have one properly finished working part of ROS, then 5 things that are started but halfway abandoned.
Yes, but that isn't really the case for the shell. I progressed by working on a priotity basis. Feature by feature. The parts you think are unfinished were simply deemed to have less priority than other features. Things like being able to reorder the start menu items, are not THAT important, when we are still lacking the folder tree sidebar panel. I didn't push toward those features simply because I was running out of steam. So I worked on polishing smaller things until I was able to take my vacation, and then I realized the steam never came back.
Webunny wrote:Is there anyone else that can fill in with the shell? How much, would you say, is it finished? Near 50%? 80%? 90%?
"The shell" is too broad for me to make an estimation like that. What % would I assign to the browse window sidebars? To the menu order persistence (to allow reordering and sorting)? To automatically detecting changes in the menu folders and refreshing the contents of the menus?

If you think of essential usability, the start menu is over 90% (the reordering is an extra, not essential for normal usage), but if you include the reordering and auto-refreshing, maybe the % goes down to 60%, or maybe not that much. The file browsing may be 90%, unless you include the tree sidebar as an essential, then maybe somewhere 60-70% (I never fully investigated ALL the classes involved in it). But those are just the areas I worked on. There's a lot of code that I never even looked at. Some was winesynced, other bits are not.

I don't know if anyone will be able to pick up where I left and continue. I hope so, but I can't magically produce a replacement. So, volunteers are welcome. ;P
Webunny
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Re: Blog: Post-vacational resolutions

Post by Webunny »

gigaherz wrote:
Webunny wrote:But how will it go, then? I mean, if it was just that undefined, and basically 'you get paid for working on ROS', then are you now continue to be paid as long as you work on ROS and *are* you working on something else of ROS right now?
No, I'm not currently in an active contract. I'm on a sortof "hiatus" until we decide exactly what I will be working on, and then I will start again with the new conditions, part-time instead of full time. Meanwhile, I'm focusing on my personal project, which is coming along nicely (so far).
Webunny wrote: As said, I can understand where you're coming from, and in a more informal setting, and with a broad, undefined goal as 'working on ROS', I can understand you decide to quit that and move to something else... but, objectively speaking, I think you realise it's better to have one properly finished working part of ROS, then 5 things that are started but halfway abandoned.
Yes, but that isn't really the case for the shell. I progressed by working on a priotity basis. Feature by feature. The parts you think are unfinished were simply deemed to have less priority than other features. Things like being able to reorder the start menu items, are not THAT important, when we are still lacking the folder tree sidebar panel. I didn't push toward those features simply because I was running out of steam. So I worked on polishing smaller things until I was able to take my vacation, and then I realized the steam never came back.
Webunny wrote:Is there anyone else that can fill in with the shell? How much, would you say, is it finished? Near 50%? 80%? 90%?
"The shell" is too broad for me to make an estimation like that. What % would I assign to the browse window sidebars? To the menu order persistence (to allow reordering and sorting)? To automatically detecting changes in the menu folders and refreshing the contents of the menus?

If you think of essential usability, the start menu is over 90% (the reordering is an extra, not essential for normal usage), but if you include the reordering and auto-refreshing, maybe the % goes down to 60%, or maybe not that much. The file browsing may be 90%, unless you include the tree sidebar as an essential, then maybe somewhere 60-70% (I never fully investigated ALL the classes involved in it). But those are just the areas I worked on. There's a lot of code that I never even looked at. Some was winesynced, other bits are not.

I don't know if anyone will be able to pick up where I left and continue. I hope so, but I can't magically produce a replacement. So, volunteers are welcome. ;P
Yes, essential usability. If it's at 90%, it's not that bad. Since you said you got help from other coders here and there, I thought you might know someone who could continue with it. Anyway, are there particular other area's of ROS you would like to tackle, then?

PS. all the rest I said ;-)
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