[freearchitecture] mailing list traffic, interested persons, website

[Steve Hall]

On Sun, 2005-11-20 at 17:02 -0800, Eric Wilhelm wrote:
> # from Terry Hancock on Sunday 20 November 2005 02:56 pm:
> 
> > It's clear there is interest in creating better free-software CAD
> > tools, but it hasn't been really organized, as far as I can tell
> > -- no project has really broken out and attracted a lot of
> > attention.
> 
[snip]
> 
> The primary hurdle, as I see it, is the basic libraries -- including
> both geometric functions and file-format support.  There are just
> too many files out there in existing formats for a new program to
> break into even marginal usage without some import/export support.
> I've seen many open-source half-starts where the "save/load"
> operations are essentially a serialization of whatever memory model
> the developer happened to be using.
> 
> The uber-converter is a plan to break out of that pattern, and
> fortunately I have attracted some sponsorship for this from Xara,
> but unfortunately, I have not seen any funded interest come from the
> architecture or engineering fields.

Eric, I agree with you. This is a valiant effort that will support all
those that come after.

<tongue-in-cheek>Any chance of developing some cool screenshots? If
not, your project is doomed to anonymity.</tongue-in-cheek>

It's these thankless labors that make FS/OSS work and give me any hope
of climbing out of this mess. Keep up the good work!


-- 
Steve Hall  [ digitect mindspring com ]