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I love FOSS, and even though it doesn't work as a model for everything, there are some kinds of applications that just seem to be a perfect fit.
I think one such application is software for CAD as it relates to construction and land surveying(my trade). Much of the design and record data from the field must be accessible for decades and this fact alone builds a strong case for using open formats. Unfortunately, and much to the chagrin of all of the surveyors I know, there seems to be a slow push by the software side of the industry away from using the open formats of old toward proprietary formats. A lot of this is caused by the ever increasing complexity (and reinventing of the wheel) of design software; however, when it comes to boots the ground, not much has changed with means and methods. There are only so many ways to accomplish what we do and most of it has already been optimized. The result of this push toward proprietary formats and overkill software has been the abandonment of good, functional, and simple proprietary software that just worked. Many of the companies that created this good software no longer exist because they have been embraced and extinguished by larger players. There is a growing reality that the only option to keep work going is to pay many 1000's of dollars a year per person for what should be a fairly simple piece of software. This is not the kind of software that would require a lot of support.
So my question is this: What is the best way for me to begin a successful FOSS project like this?
For the record I am not a programmer, but I dabble from time to time. I could foresee it being a fairly easy sell to convince the powers that be to throw some money (one time cost) at a development team to create for us what we need. Between the different companies and contacts that I know in the industry, a sort of corporate crowd funding effort is not far fetched. Why the heck isn't this already done for all the standard corporate software, rather than paying needless licensing fees into perpetuity? Sometimes software just becomes stable. A FOSS solution would be a godsend to smaller mom and pop operations and I think it could cure some of my resentment of people constantly breaking good things for the sake of "progress".
BTW, I have looked at some of the existing open source CAD software and found it all pretty wanting. Could requesting special functionality from these developers be a better route than starting from scratch? Thanks in advance!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 04 2018, @05:10PM (3 children)
It's not your grammar that makes you look like a fool. It's claiming a foreign word couldn't change meanings in 200 years, and failing to look it up in a dictionary. Let me help you with that:
"Distress or embarrassment at having failed or been humiliated" is the non 1840 definition.
Since you likely still don't understand, let me do the substitution for you.
Unfortunately, and much to the distress or embarrassment at having failed or been humiliated, all of the surveyors I know, there seems to be a slow push by the software side of the industry
So the surveyors were distressed and embarrassed because of their failing and humiliation. Because some computer programmers don't' like open formats.
Your a moron. Take an ESL class at your local community college.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 04 2018, @06:38PM (2 children)
I never said that foreign words couldn't change meaning over time (just to help you out, I am typing this really slow because you clearly have substantial reading comprehension issues), I'm just saying that the "language changes over time" is the cop-out "I've exposed my ignorance in trying to look smart" bail on an argument.
To help your dumb-fuckery (or more likely (see--I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt) to help you overcome your intellectual laziness in copy/pasting the first internet definition you can find), I'll do the substitution with the same meaning it has had for 200 years:
Unfortunately, and much to the annoyance of all the surveyors I know, there seems to be a slow push by the software side of the industry . . .
So the word is used correctly, and unless all the surveyors he knows become embarrassed and humiliated when software developers don't add features to a program (I will admit the very slight possibility it is true that all of the surveyors this person knows have severe issues with their feelings of paranoia and self-worth), this should be a learning moment for you to consider what words mean and how they are used and not take internet definitions as definitive.
I hope this information helps you grow a bit, and I am happy to help you further. The first step of lifting yourself out of debilitating ignorance is to first recognize the little box that you are intellectually confined in.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 07 2018, @11:40AM
yeah, chagrin does not mean "annoyance," nor does it mean what it meant 200 years ago faggot. you should get yourself a dictionary.
(Score: 0) by fakefuck39 on Monday January 08 2018, @01:19AM
What is it you're not getting moron? 200 years ago the word chagrin made it to English from french, where it means something like "sorrow" - like when someone died. It then changed meaning in English up to the modern day, and now means shame or embarrassment.
I seriously have to wonder. I speak french well and am well-educated. I don't need to look up things like that. But I did anywise. You are simply making stuff up, and using that to poke "wrong?" Do you really think in this age where anyone can look up a word in 2 minutes to see you're wrong your made up facts can actually be used in a discussion?
Knowledge is power, you retarded clown. Get some.