Derrow needs help?

[tonyp12]

With version 0.94, things that worked in early versions
do not work (angle/ remux etc).

As we all are counting on Derrow for Version 1.0 to be complete
and bug free (as there are no other alternative to ifoedit)

Maybe he needs support staff?

He should have a person that answers email/bugreports
and forward them to Derrow during "staff meeting" each day.

Teach other programmers the in and outs about DVD IFO's
So he can get help with some of the programming,
the guy from VOBRATOR v0.2 comes in mind.

Does he have school/dayjob to take care of?
If people donated money, could he take a day off each
week and work on ifoedit?

[lwdarling]

At one time, I made some of these same suggestions.... But I fear I was wrong. It's hard to argue with the sucess that Derrow has with how he is doing things now.

I know we all want all of our features (and bug-free) yesterday.

The best thing anyone could do is just donate some money to Derrow. (Then beta test...)


Thanks again Derrow!

[lwdarling]

I forgot to add,


and be patient!!! The man is a wonder!

[tonyp12]

Originally posted by lwdarling
anyone could do is just donate some money to Derrow.

But is this just a hobby for him and even if got more money
comming in, will (or could) he spend more time on IFOEDIT?

In his email he seems to complain about not having enough time.

[mpucoder]

You mean the auto-response? That is to warn people not to expect an immediate answer. Derrow gets hundreds of emails which have nothing to do with development, but how to do individual projects. No one has time for that.
From what I understand he is working a full time job, and consulting, to make ends meet. So, although IfoEdit is a hobby, and therefore proceeds at whatever pace his time permits, if donations increased he could spend more time on it.

[Derrow]

Right, I have a regular fulltime job to do, and IfoEdit is just my hobby. I develop it in my free time.
But when contributions keep increasing, I can quit my job, and spend all my time on developing IfoEdit/VobEdit. :D
Maybe I should switch IfoEdit to Shareware.

[tonyp12]

when contributions keep increasing, I can quit my job, and spend all my time on developing IfoEdit/VobEdit.

Say we start a fundraiser for you, are you in a possistion
where you could take at least one day off from work?

Alot of companies are a little hardheaded and they will say
stuff like "you work for us fulltime or you do not work at all"

Shareware or maybe adware?, a 1second commercial are inserted
on all authoring?

I do not like it, but if that what it takes.......

[crow]

You know what i think is, the info in this forms is priceless.

I think $5.00 bucks to join isn't asking much, i'll be the first one
to pay..

How the money is split up is up to management.

And yes Derrow has done an awsome job with IfoEdit......! and should see some $$$$$$$$$$$$

But shareware nags, no thanks I'll buy it first...

[flaystus]

Derrow long as you dont charge insane prices,if you ever switch it to shareware I promise not to yoink your software.

As is soon as I get some cash I'm donating something your way, my current process barely uses IFOedit right, but the software is a wonder to behold.

[Luper_PT]

My I make a sugestion?

Why don't make IfoEdit open source. There are lots og guys that can contribute to develope IfoEdit, including me.

[flaystus]

Personally I could see some advantage to making it opensource, however there is also the disadvantage of possible losing project focus, which is alwasy an issue with a collabritive error.

Also I'd be an uphill fight to keep other version from branching off an causing confusion.

I'm pretty sure that Derrow has considered this in the past, at least I think he would have by now, and for whatever reason decided not to...

But its all just speculation really...

[mpucoder]

Actually, I see nothing wrong with the pace Derrow keeps - it's really quite remarkable. I just looked in my archives, and IfoEdit02, the first I downloaded, became available on October 4, 2001 - just a little over a year ago. It could do - Get VTS Sectors (called AutoCalc Sectors back then). Now look where IfoEdit is, and also account for 2 months away from the project.

[gnutellafan]

Originally posted by Luper_PT
My I make a sugestion?

Why don't make IfoEdit open source. There are lots og guys that can contribute to develope IfoEdit, including me.

I think this would be the best situation. But ifoedit is Derrow's baby. I made this suggestion before and took some slak for it from lighting uk. I think if the best tools were made open source they could be merged into one project and hopefully bring all the developers together.

To the Developers: Please, do not take this the wrong way. We all love what you have done and are doing for us. We appreciate all of the time and hardwork. We love the software you have written. It just seems that things could be even better if they were open source and the developers worked together. I mean how many ripping programs do we need. If they all worked together to make one really really amazing ripping tool that was integrated with ifoedit, vobedit, dvd authoring, splitting, cutting, ect this comunity could really create an amazing tool. One that I think we would all be willing to pay a reasonable price for.

[Derrow]

Well the open source concept workes very well for Unix people, cause the entire OS is open Source, so nobody would pay for a comercial Unix-software.

But with Windows it's kinda diffucult. I'm afraid some company could make a commercial product out of my work, where I have spend my whole free time into it.
That's my prob.

[Luper_PT]

Yes Derrow, that is the problem with open source, you are right about that. I didn't remember that.
By the way, good work IfoEdit. Ty for your IfoEdit and your time.

[gnutellafan]

Originally posted by Derrow
Well the open source concept workes very well for Unix people, cause the entire OS is open Source, so nobody would pay for a comercial Unix-software.

But with Windows it's kinda diffucult. I'm afraid some company could make a commercial product out of my work, where I have spend my whole free time into it.
That's my prob.

Yeah, that can be frustrating when a company takes an open source project and sells it but that is the nature of open source. At least if they add anything to the project they have to release the source for their additions as well.

Is there any reason that you could not do a modified GPL (mGPL)that says that the program or any program that uses the source code cannot be sold?

Of course if you plan to take it commercial yourself that is another thing. But being the originator of the code you are not bound to the GPL and can close the source at any time. Of course any code that was open would remain open but changes you make from that point are closed again.

[mpucoder]

There is one harsh reality that programmers using GPL are finding out. A license is only as good as the ability to enforce it. Once code becomes publicly available it can be, and has been, modified to appear to be someone else's, and turned into a commercial product. This leaves the original developer out in the cold, usually without the resources to defend himself. Yes, the EFF can help, but they cannot help everyone due to limited resources.
As many have found out, the best protection against this is not a patent, copyright, or license, but secrecy. The formula for Coca Cola is one example, it is not patented, but is a trade secret.

An ironic side note: IfoEdit would not have been possible if the DVD Forum (then Consortium) had not felt the need to protect their intellectual property with patents. It was through patent searches that most of the information about DVD was obtained.

[gnutellafan]

yeah, the whole xvid scenario. I know its a problem. But if there is no plans for a comercial ifoedit (and maybe there are) then even IF some company steals it is that a big deal?

Other options, bring some other people in on the closed source project.

Separate the GUI so that ifoedit can be used as a plugin for an all in one ap (I already asked Derrow for this and he seemed receptive, though it will take some time)

I just want to point out that I greatly apprecate the work of all of the developers here and my search for a way to improve the development process should in no way belittle the great strides they have made and are making.

Keep up the GREAT work Derrow.

[dgm]

I think that the idea of making IFOEDIT a Shareware is excellent
or maybe Microsoft will paid a couple of millions to Derrow for the source :D

[mpucoder]

I know that was meant as a joke, and is amusing - but not likely. Microsoft is opposed to copying DVDs, and has sided with the MPAA. I don't think Gates really cares about the issues, but promoting Digital Rights Management is their next BIG THING.

Of course, they could always buy it to kill it (remember WordPerfect?).

[gnutellafan]

Lets hope that never happens. At least no one can take the current version away from me.

I guess the real issue, and only one Derrow can really answer, is what can we all do to help? Its great software and we know you work hard on it Derrow and that you have other obligations. Do we need to create other ways for ppl to donate?

I still think one of the better ways to go (besides open sourcing it) is to make it a plugin. Then people can build the GUI and other applications for the program.

[Derrow]

There's one thing right now, I would need help with.
I'm looking for a way, to burn DVDs directly out of IfoEdit.

If somebody could help me on developing such a routine, that would be amazing.

Derrow

[gnutellafan]

Hey, I dont know if anyone stepped up for this. I would love to help if I could. Certainly someone here can. And when Derrow asks for help we should eagerly give it.

[Derrow]

Nobody stepped up yet.
Looks like, just end-users are reading this forum, and no developers.

So, I'm all on my own :(

[gnutellafan]

Derrow, its unfortunate that no one has come forward. If you dont mind my asking though why reinvent the wheel. There are already many burning programs out there and you probably get one with your burner. In my own opinion I think the priority should be put on features that are not available out there (at least readily) and making the whole process easier for ppl.

The DVD burning could probably be addressed by going back to the plugin idea. If the GUI was separate from the core of ifoedit and vobedit developers could work on a GUI for them and something like smart ripper. Someone else could design a burner for the same GUI, ect.

[DirtyAbdul]

yeah, long gone are my programming days especially with a family... otherwise, i would have loved to contribute my share of code to derrow. all i can do now is to support him morally, financially, and spend my time beta-testing for his amazing prog. i only wish there were more out there who'd show their enthusiasm not just by blindly ripping movies and copying them on blanks -- but that is only MY OPINION :rolleyes:. believe me, it would have been way more feasible for ME to buy a $300 dvd authoring software that actually works (not to mention that i could afford it) without the error messages greeting you all over the place and the frustrations... (derrow, no criticism to you :D). but then: where is the fun to actually see a program developing, bugs squished, features enhanced, and where you could say that you contributed your share to it?

anyway, that was my 2 cents worth of thoughts...

DA

PS: KEEP UP THE GREAT WORK, DERROW! YOU ROCK!

[FonkiE]

Originally posted by Derrow
There's one thing right now, I would need help with.
I'm looking for a way, to burn DVDs directly out of IfoEdit.

If somebody could help me on developing such a routine, that would be amazing.

Derrow

I have written a cd-write program, which is highly portable. http://www.giga.or.at/nih/cdtools.html

This URL is rather ancient, there is a later MMC version (SCSI MMC2 is the standard most cd/dvd writers use, even the IDE ones!). This version was never cleaned up and released, but I use it with linux.

There is no windows version, but the system dependend source is just one file apporximately 3-6KB long and there are 3 platforms supported, I believe it's one afternoon to port everything to windows and try it with a dvd...

You are welcome to use the current source (request it from me), but it's GPL, so your program should turn GPL too ...

I'm waiting for a linux version of ifoedit for a long time now ;-)

[gnutellafan]

well I submitted a request for help to be posted on a few site Derrow. The guys over at DVDwriters.co.uk posted it!!!