The Future of HCC (GPL Developers Needed)

[Regai]

UPDATE: HCC will be released under the GPL on SourceForge. I am looking for VB Programmers who want to join the dev team.
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There comes a point in every software's life cycle that it is no longer supported by its creator. There are many reasons for this. Now the time has come for me to step aside from HCC.

For those of you that do not know me, I am a computer programmer. The program was developed during a time when I could have been charging a client for programming time. I thought that the revenue from charging $10 would be enough to offset the actual cost of developing the program and I was wrong. The revenue stream is such that I have not recovered from the lost time working on the program and I probably never would. This meant that I could only reasonably work on the program during my free time and with the birth of my twins I no longer have free time. This has caused a major delay in all work on the program.

This left me with three options as to the future of the program.

1) Continue trying to work on it in my free time, what little I have of it.

2) Abandon the program entirely.

3) Release it to the community.

Option 1 is right out, because of how little free time I have I would grow to resent the program which would eventually lead to option 2 anyway. I need my free time for me.

Option 2 would betray those that did register the program and would garner nothing but ill will.

Option 3 may also betray those that paid for the program, but not continuing the program would be a bigger betryal. Therefor, I attempted Option 3. I contacted the admins of this site and got a luke warm reception that turned colder. It seems that those that would like the site to take on the program do not have the abilities to continue it, and those that do have the ability do not want to because of my choice to charge for the program initially. Which then leads back to option 2....

I am disheartened that this is the way it must be. I will continue to send out the activation codes whenever the program is registered and if enough of a revenue stream appears then I will pick it back up and continue. But as it is now, v1.0.7 is the last version of HCC.


If anyone out there wants to pick up the torch, PM me and I'll discuss the possibility of releasing HCC under the GPL. If you are not dedicated to the future of HCC then don't waste either of our times. If you want to complain about my decision, that is your right, but this is what I feel is right to do for myself.

I am removing the download for the program from my website on Friday, so if you want a copy of the program, you'd best download it now.

[Grungebob]

If anyone out there wants to pick up the torch, PM me and I'll discuss the possibility of releasing HCC under the GPL. If you are not dedicated to the future of HCC then don't waste either of our times. If you want to complain about my decision, that is your right, but this is what I feel is right to do for myself.

You heard it folks!! Please if you have any talents in this area consider taking up the torch on this!!!!!

[Annerios]

I'm sorry to hear this and hope that someone can step in and keep this program alive.

Unfortunately, I am not a programmer and cannot do so.

The program is very useful in its current incarnation, but Regai's plans to expand it would have made it even more so. It would be a waste to let such a good program die.

[Parduz]

Regai:
I have not fully understood the question, so i don't understand WHAT Heroscapers.com should do with HCC, so i've not voted yet.
But let me say something from the "programmer side", with the premise that i've nothing against you and your work.

One of the reasons (not the main reason) i left SolidScape free is that when you ask for money then you become the seller and the ppl the Customer. Having payed, they have the RIGHTS to have assistance, bug fixing, improvements and so on.
Now you've started HCC when...5 months ago? i can be wrong, but it seems to me the right time.
I was reading the HCC growing in HQ. Basically you started the big debugging session selling the program, putting in it improvements and bug fixing when new users founds them.
So the product "HCC", payed, is a six month life product. After this time, the money spent by a user, sorry, a customer, does not grant him nothing more.

IMHO, you should put your source code public. This is (i repeat, IMHO) the only way to give back to the customers some value.

I don't know what language you used for HCC, but in such case i can try to give it a look in some spare time, ... maybe one day a new Scaper will arrive with the right skills to pump it up.

My best whishes for your twins, i give you 6 years and we will read they first post here

[Regai]

Parduz: The program is written in Visual Basic 6.0 and makes use of the GDI API. What I would like to happen is for someone with the ability and the resources available to them to accept the lead for a GPL'd version of the project. I would really like the community to own it, but I don't want it to die in the hands of someone who will not nuture its development.

For those of you that do not know the GPL, it is one of the dominate open source licenses, once HCC is released under it, the source and the program are free, but I will retain all copyrights and ownership of the original code. Any changes made to the code become part of the program and the copyrights for that belong to the contributor (not me unless I decide to contribute more, which I may).

As far as rights to assistance, et al. I do not know the law in Italy, but in the US companies can and do charge extra for tech support, upgrades, bug fixes, etc. Companies can and do sell programs they never fix or upgrade despite problems with it. I am not like these companies so I am willing to release the code under the GPL if someone will pick up the torch.

[Parduz]

Ok, VB6 is one of my best skills.
What i don't know is the "weight" of this sentence:

Originally Posted by Regai

What I would like to happen is for someone with the ability and the resources available to them to accept the lead for a GPL'd version of the project.

I really dont' understand what amount of time this will eventually take to me.

Originally Posted by Regai

For those of you that do not know the GPL, it is one of the dominate open source licenses, once HCC is released under it, the source and the program are free, but I will retain all copyrights and ownership of the original code. Any changes made to the code become part of the program and the copyrights for that belong to the contributor (not me unless I decide to contribute more, which I may).

This seems very fair, to me.

Originally Posted by Regai

As far as rights to assistance, et al. I do not know the law in Italy, but in the US companies can and do charge extra for tech support, upgrades, bug fixes, etc. Companies can and do sell programs they never fix or upgrade despite problems with it. I am not like these companies so I am willing to release the code under the GPL if someone will pick up the torch.

Oh, i was not talking in "law" terms: i tend to think at this community as to a group of friends, so all i say is more or less in this sense.

Regai, if you can explain to me what kind of efforts are required, i can think to your "torch". I've two sons me too, and a lot of hobbies/interest, i don't want take care of something bigger than me just to throw it away.
But HCC is a precious work, so pls teach me about what's required to keep it alive.

[Jim]

OK, I haven't been paying attention. What is HCC?

Jim

[jdtenor]

and what's a GPL

[reapersaurus]

I'm VERY interested in the program, but since I haven't seen a demo of it, nor even a screenshot, the only benefits to HS fans are what I've been told.

[cbs42]

HCC is the Heroscape Card Catalog program. It's a custom card creation tool. You can read more about it here. The old tutorial is located here. Some samples of cards made from it (courtesy of EyeOfSauron) can be seen here.

Here's the condensed version of what GPL means. It's not entirely accurate, as the subject can get complicated, but it conveys the general purpose of what someone means when they say "GPL" in the manner that it's used on this thread:

GPL is a General Public License. It means the codebase is "open source" but all changes are pushed up through the project owners to the project lead, who then compiles the desired changes (leaving other changes out at the discretion of the project committee) and releases the next "official" release of the product.

Although the code is publically available, organizing it through a GPL project structure prevents dozens of different versions from being released by different developers. GPL leverages the programming power of the public, while continuing to only maintain one "official" version of the project.

IMO, this project should be put up on SourceForge, rather than here on HeroScapers.com. HS'ers is not a development site, and it lacks the tools to properly organize and maintain a GPL project.

[reapersaurus]

Thank you for the info.

[Annerios]

HCC is the Heroscape Card Creator Program.

It is a powerful program that trims a lot of the fat of the HS toolkit and focuses on card creation.

It includes things like automatically making the tageting icon image for you based on the image you use for your unit, a built in fogging effect and much more.

It allows you to create very nice looking cards very quickly. You can even make official looking cards once you load in official templates and adjust them.

Given the special power text, I can whip up an official looking card for a hero very quickly using HCC.

If I am not mistaken, what Regai was going to work on was making it so you could bring in multiple unit images for the targeting and other enhancements to the whole imaging section of the program to expand it and perhaps make it useful to create other styles of cards (square ones, for example) etc. Tackling that job was going to make it so we would have more control over the text size for special powers and other small issues that some of us ran into.

Still, this program is very usable as is. Here is one of my cards made in HCC:



The only things I believe I had to add to this card outside HCC were the green sighting icon dot, the gray parts of the targeting icon and my sig. Most new custom creators cannot make a card that looks this close to official using the HS Toolkit or most other programs. This one is fairly simple to use and the results are impressive.

When you need to constantly edit and tweak a card for playtesting like I do, this program makes life so much easier. In fact, the cards are output as .BMP files and they are even nicer looking than the .JPG sample I posted here.

If Parduz is willing to work on this that would be fantastic, as I have nothing but respect for the absolutely amazing job he has done with Solidscape.

Regai, you know you had my support since day 1 and I understand your reasons for having to put it aside. Just dealing with one newborn can rob you of most of your free time; two at the same time has to be exhausting.