While waiting for the details of the new Creamware DP/SDK package, why not take advantage of the time to organize a development community, and come up with some general standards and guidelines?
I hope you will contribute your thoughts, ideas, and opinions - even if you are not sure whether you want to develop (or if you've been developing for years). Here are some things that I think would help me:
1. "Keywords for Messages" (and maybe DP sub-forums in the future, John Cooper?). A few readily identifiable Keywords in message titles would help with the signal to noise ratio. "Synth" would be an obvious key word, others might be, "Record," "FX," "Live Sound" etc. What do you think?
2. "Developed For." Let people know where you are coming from. A giant software development company has a whole range of computers, monitors, and devices to test on. Most of us don't have that luxury. A device developed on a 25" ultra-high-resolution display, an Intel Extreme Edition P-4 CPU with 2 Gigs of fast RAM and three Scope cards might look and feel different on a 15" low-res screen, a 300 MHz P-III with 125 MBytes of RAM and a single Luna 2.
3. "Beta Buddies" (part A). Here's where non-developers (as well as developers) can really help. Other than thinking that the minimum requirement for beta testers would be to own a copy of Norton Ghost
I'm a little vague on this point. I mean, most of us would be delighted to beta test devices from some of the well-known Creamware developers, but what about Joe Shmoe who has just developed his first (maybe not very interesting) device? How would he get feedback? What would be the incentive to risk your stable installation to help poor Joe? Points, perhaps?4. "Beta Buddies" (part B). Rating the testers. What if poor Joe gets stuck with a beta tester who doesn't ever seem to be able to get anything to work? Or a beta tester who hates everything? Or, possibly worse, a beta tester who really doesn't want to hurt anybody's feelings and thus praises everything? What about self-rating, could that work?
5. "PlanetZ Community Certifications." A device that met certain minimum requirements would be eligible to receive certification. For example, if Joe Shmoe's first device was called "Joe Shmoe's Really Gigantic Icon That Takes Up Half The Routing Window Before It's Even Opened - Notepad," that device would (hopefully) not receive certification in the Plays Well With Other's category
. Categories for Visibility, Stability, and Suitability for Live Sound are some possible areas for certification. Judgement calls for Utility and Audio Quality should not be certifiable, but PlanetZ already has a mechanism for rating devices. Certification would need to be a little more formalized, I would think. But precisely how?Like many of you, I hope to try developing applications for sfp when the revised CreamWare DP/SDK is released. Whether I personally succeed or not, nevertheless, I see the opening up of development as a big plus for Creamware.
But I can appreciate the concerns that some of you have expressed about unfettered development. It's sort of like handing everybody a blank sheet of paper. I have raised this topic in the hope that the PlanetZ community can turn that blank sheet of paper into more of a 'form' for those of us who find that a little structure can actually be more liberating than total mayhem and anarchy.
Some communities, Linux, for example, have reached a pretty good balance between freedom and structure. What kind of balance should the brave new non-officially-supported CreamWare development community strive for?
I look forward to reading your ideas and thoughts.
John
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: jabney on 2004-02-12 14:28 ]</font>
