RE: [XaraXtreme-dev] Ping

[Rob Kendrick <rjek@xxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, 2007-02-15 at 15:03 +0000, Charles Moir wrote:
> > But the BIG question is still; what about CDRAW?
> 
> But why is this the big question?
> 
> The source code of all the product is available with the exception of
> CDraw rendering core. This doesn't stop the product working. We make the
> binary of this available for free to be distributed with Xara Xtreme.
> (And increasing numbers of distros are distributing completely closed
> source products such as Flash Player and Adobe Reader, and most Linux
> users have these installed even where they are not distributed as part
> of the OS). The lack of CDraw source code certainly doesn't stop Xtreme
> being progressed and developed by any interested developers if they were
> interested in helping us progress the product.

Actually, no - I think you're wrong.  Many people in the open source
world will take it much more seriously, and be more likely to help out
if it doesn't have any non-free dependencies.  Infact, it's becomming
increasingly like people are beginning to consider Xara's offer as
half-hearted :-/  (Not that I count myself among those who hold that
belief.)

> So isn't it a bit of red-herring to be focussed on this small part only?

Most open-source people find the devil is in the details.

> We've held back on CDraw partly because it's simply not necessary to
> have the source code of this to develop, improve, fix bugs, add new
> features or all the other things that I'd imagine most users would be
> looking for. It's obvious this part is complete, and works perfectly
> well (as you can tell using the product), so why the fixation on CDraw?

For the above reasons.  That, and distributions like Debian, Ubuntu,
etc, build on, run on, and support platforms other than the ones you
provide the binary lump for.

B.