Releasing an engine I was beta testing?

[Spirit]

[scar3crow]

Honestly, waiting more than double the proposed upper limit which he agreed to, I think you would be in the clear for this. From your description of it, I don't think you would be unveiling some super secret thing, but rather just a case of solid work that was kept quiet because of a desire to show it in public When It's Ready.

[LordHavoc]

If you feel confident that you've put the appropriate effort into contacting him, and already had a prior agreement to release after a year without contact, it's pretty clear that releasing it would be fine.

[r00k]

i would be interested to see all the new stuf as well!

[revelator]

Could be interresting to see joequake is a pretty configurable engine, i seen lots of cool examples using it.

[frag.machine]

From what you said seems fair enough at this point to go ahead and release it.
However, if makes you feel better I'd suggest to try a last email remembering your deal terms.

[Spike]

if he's really disappeared off the face of the planet then I doubt he would still care.

as you've mentioned it several times in the past, I think it would make you feel better about it.
go for it, if only to get it off your mind.

[mankrip]

The reason why I don't like releasing beta versions of my code is because I know how much some of it is crappy, and I know that if others implement those crap versions of my code in their engines, they most likely won't bother re-implementing my changes when I finally finish polishing them. So, for some people it's just a matter of making sure that the code used by the community is good.

However, when real life hits hard and there's no way to polish the code, releasing the code, even though some of it is crappy and/or unfinished, is better than nothing. He most likely also thinks this way, since he allowed you to release it under such circumstances.

Just make sure you send him an e-mail telling him you're releasing it, so he may eventually know.

[Spirit]

Thanks guys!

I did try to find him online and sent mails but without success. I did however find his address in a long burrowed mail thread I forgot to check earlier. So I will send a good old fashioned letter via air mail. I also saw that he posted at func once asking for other beta testers so it was not top secret.

In the worst case (no reply) I'll release it christmas then. Enough time to make a nice homepage for it.

Cheers!

[Baker]

[Supa]

[r00k]

if not the source, can you list some of the best things about the engine you like?

not to give away unique features of said engine, but some of the mundane.
for me I added ctrl-x ability in the qconsole. woot was 2 lines of code, but something i would share to others.

[scar3crow]

Baker, he posted this where it would be seen by the people interested in it. Those people have seen it, given feedback, and appreciate what he has done. This is a small community, though one that is difficult to gauge in scope because most people don't regularly comment. He is acting in the interests of the community, and respecting the original wishes of the creator - if anything, this is an exemplary case of how to handle such.

You don't micromanage a community, you let the good examples do what they do.

[gnounc]

' '

[Spirit]

I posted here to gauge my moral compass about releasing someone else's not-yet-public work without their knowledge by seeing how others (who are into the same kind of coding) would react.

Maybe it is my cultural background as a German but I care a lot about personal rights like privacy and self-determination(?). I would not want others to release my non-public projects at their whim.


r00k: I might do some hype-building teasers.