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 Post subject: OK, so what *is* next after 20.10? :)
PostPosted: Thu Nov 19, 2020 10:11 pm 
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As the title says. :) Curious to know what's on the cards.

How about fixes for a load of old bugs and issues, and some (or a lot rather?) long overdue TLC for NextSTART and the taskbar Jorge? After all, even though it's become a little bit of a Cinderella in more recent times, but all in all NS is still the most versatile tool in the whole stable. Any new stuff surely can take a break and wait a while...

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 Post subject: Re: OK, so what *is* next after 20.10? :)
PostPosted: Wed Dec 16, 2020 5:16 pm 
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Seriously, what *is* next, Jorge? This board is going all to hell and becoming a spammer's paradise, and there are lots of unanswered support queries which do rather piss off some people no doubt.

An announcement of some sort saying something like you'll be absent for a while would have been helpful, at least.

All that said, I hope the reason for your continued absence is not anything too serious and that you are well.

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 Post subject: Re: OK, so what *is* next after 20.10? :)
PostPosted: Sun Dec 20, 2020 8:38 pm 
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nexter wrote:
Seriously, what *is* next, Jorge? This board is going all to hell and becoming a spammer's paradise, and there are lots of unanswered support queries which do rather piss off some people no doubt.

An announcement of some sort saying something like you'll be absent for a while would have been helpful, at least.

All that said, I hope the reason for your continued absence is not anything too serious and that you are well.

One really can't help getting rather worried, on the one hand concerning Jorge himself, and on the other, the state of affairs here which is well beyond a joke now with more spam than real posts, as well as concerning the future of the Winstep programmes.

A temporary "burn out" break is one thing, but the frequent and sometimes lengthy absences of nearly the last two years with little appearing to show for it and little or no information on what is happening are quite another. Surely, things cannot continue like this if paying customers are to be kept on board rather than being allowed to become seriously disgruntled.

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 Post subject: Re: OK, so what *is* next after 20.10? :)
PostPosted: Mon Dec 21, 2020 1:14 am 
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I, too, hope Jorge is well.

Having used Winstep since 2008 and paid off and on for the annual license, I have come to realize that it is rapidly reaching the end of its life cycle and no longer worth supporting given its erratic development pace.

That said, I will use it until it's no longer worthwhile.

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 Post subject: Re: OK, so what *is* next after 20.10? :)
PostPosted: Mon Dec 21, 2020 6:01 pm 
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Chuck wrote:
I, too, hope Jorge is well.

Having used Winstep since 2008 and paid off and on for the annual license, I have come to realize that it is rapidly reaching the end of its life cycle and no longer worth supporting given its erratic development pace.

That said, I will use it until it's no longer worthwhile.

I'm sure we all do very much hope that all's well with Jorge. Especially given the state of the pandemic and that governments tend to just pussyfoot around the whole issue and more concerned with the economy than people's lives. (It's been said time and again from the beginning of the whole business, you can either save the economy or people's lives, not both. Economies can be repaired/reformed - lives cannot.)

As for Winstep apps, well, yes, it cannot be denied that development seems to be somewhat erratic - not just at present but even over the long term, looking back through the forum. It always seems to go in cycles of almost manic activity with tons of new features, and then periods of relative inactivity. But look at it this way. Between early 2018 and 19, the number of new features alone would be equivalent to several major new releases over a period of two or more years, so anybody with an active subscription in that period got more than their money's worth. Although, equally it has to be said that there are quite a number of - admittedly mostly relatively minor - bugs and other issues that should have been addressed long ago IMO but have not, and also the NextSTART component seems to have become a somewhat neglected Cinderella in recent years, despite being in many ways the most versatile and powerful app in the suite (and the one I personally tend to use the most, actually).

Overall, I don't think it's time to write off the Winstep suite just yet, I rather think there's still a lot of mileage left in the apps. Yes, it is beginning to show its age a bit, in terms of the limitations of being single-threaded, that much can't be denied, but it still remains more than useful and is the only suite of apps of its kind there is. So while Windows exists in a recognisable form and keeps faith with Win32 apps, Winstep will always remain relevant and useful. And there are still a lot of features on the 'to do' list, let us not forget, and I'm sure when all is said and done and all being well, these will come along eventually.

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 Post subject: Re: OK, so what *is* next after 20.10? :)
PostPosted: Sun Jan 10, 2021 12:52 pm 
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As much as I love Winstep, the handwriting on the wall tells me this project is basically dead. At best it's gulping on it's last few breaths, I've seen it so many times. Bummer!


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 Post subject: Re: OK, so what *is* next after 20.10? :)
PostPosted: Sun Jan 10, 2021 4:58 pm 
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blopplop wrote:
As much as I love Winstep, the handwriting on the wall tells me this project is basically dead. At best it's gulping on it's last few breaths, I've seen it so many times. Bummer!

Don't write Winstep off yet, it's far too soon for that. Although admittedly the signs don't look too good, we've had long or long-ish absences by Jorge before and it's only just coming up to two months now.

But this certainly seems to be the worst period of mass spamming yet and that is really making a mess of things and practically taking over the forums by swamping them. :/ If there were at least 2 or 3 moderators to take care of that it wouldn't be half so bad. I must admit I find it somewhat disheartening often to see nothing but spam in here and almost no genuine posts the rest of the time and there are times I really get fed up and even annoyed myself.

The oddest thing is that Jorge keeps logging in to the board but as he never seems to actually take any action that doesn't necessarily mean anything. However, at least it would seem to indicate that he's still there.

Let's just hope that Jorge's OK and that he'll be among us with renewed vigour RSN.

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 Post subject: Re: OK, so what *is* next after 20.10? :)
PostPosted: Tue Jan 12, 2021 10:00 pm 
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blopplop wrote:
As much as I love Winstep, the handwriting on the wall tells me this project is basically dead. At best it's gulping on it's last few breaths, I've seen it so many times. Bummer!


Not the first time it happened, as Nexter said. I already explained the reasons in multiple previous posts. I have been at this for over 20 years now, so the news of my death have been greatly exaggerated, as they always were in the other times I also had to step away for a while. :D

Anyway, Nexter and DesertDwarf (Ric & Ric) you two have just been promoted to Global Moderators. :D

Thanks for the help you two have been providing in keeping the fort up and running and my apologies for not having provided the appropriate tools sooner.

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 Post subject: Re: OK, so what *is* next after 20.10? :)
PostPosted: Tue Jan 12, 2021 10:01 pm 
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winstep wrote:
blopplop wrote:
As much as I love Winstep, the handwriting on the wall tells me this project is basically dead. At best it's gulping on it's last few breaths, I've seen it so many times. Bummer!


Not the first time it happened, as Nexter said. I already explained the reasons in multiple previous posts.

Anyway, Nexter and DesertDwarf (Ric & Ric) you two have just been promoted to Global Moderators. :D

Thanks for the help you two have been providing in keeping the fort up and running and my apologies for not having provided the appropriate tools sooner.

Welcome back... and great call!

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 Post subject: Re: OK, so what *is* next after 20.10? :)
PostPosted: Tue Jan 12, 2021 10:02 pm 
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Thanks, Chuck! :D

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 Post subject: Re: OK, so what *is* next after 20.10? :)
PostPosted: Tue Jan 12, 2021 10:19 pm 
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nexter wrote:
Let's just hope that Jorge's OK and that he'll be among us with renewed vigour RSN.


Ric, you need a cool Avatar to go along with your new Moderator badge eheh :D

First thing I need to fix is the fact that Flash is no longer an option and some of the videos and image pop ups on the website depended on it. PITA.

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 Post subject: Re: OK, so what *is* next after 20.10? :)
PostPosted: Wed Jan 13, 2021 1:58 am 
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winstep wrote:
blopplop wrote:
As much as I love Winstep, the handwriting on the wall tells me this project is basically dead. At best it's gulping on it's last few breaths, I've seen it so many times. Bummer!

Not the first time it happened, as Nexter said. I already explained the reasons in multiple previous posts. I have been at this for over 20 years now, so the news of my death have been greatly exaggerated, as they always were in the other times I also had to step away for a while. :D

Phew, thank goodness they were exaggerated! Happens to the best of us. ;) Anyway, great to see you back Jorge, so a big welcome back.
winstep wrote:
Anyway, Nexter and DesertDwarf (Ric & Ric) you two have just been promoted to Global Moderators. :D

Oh bummer - I guess that means having to act responsibly! ;) But I can still be as irascible as ever, right? No? Damn! ;) :P
winstep wrote:
Thanks for the help you two have been providing in keeping the fort up and running and my apologies for not having provided the appropriate tools sooner.

No apologies necessary here Jorge. And helping out as best as possible, heck, what are friends for? :)

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 Post subject: Re: OK, so what *is* next after 20.10? :)
PostPosted: Wed Jan 13, 2021 2:13 am 
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winstep wrote:
nexter wrote:
Let's just hope that Jorge's OK and that he'll be among us with renewed vigour RSN.

Ric, you need a cool Avatar to go along with your new Moderator badge eheh :D

Grrr.... I hate avatars! Thanks for nothing! ;) How about an angry-looking silverback gorilla? Or as an alternative, Family Guy Peter Griffin ejecting the contents of his stomach? Cool enough? :P
winstep wrote:
First thing I need to fix is the fact that Flash is no longer an option and some of the videos and image pop ups on the website depended on it. PITA.

Yeah, big time PITA to sort out. Used to use a fair bit of Flash on my websites myself in the past - so easy to write little custom applets. OTOH, not such a bad thing given that it's always remained a security risk.

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 Post subject: Re: OK, so what *is* next after 20.10? :)
PostPosted: Wed Jan 13, 2021 4:06 am 
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winstep wrote:
Anyway, Nexter and DesertDwarf (Ric & Ric) you two have just been promoted to Global Moderators. :D

Thanks for the help you two have been providing in keeping the fort up and running and my apologies for not having provided the appropriate tools sooner.


It's great to have you back and wonderful news!

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 Post subject: Re: OK, so what *is* next after 20.10? :)
PostPosted: Wed Jan 13, 2021 5:35 pm 
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nexter wrote:
winstep wrote:
Ric, you need a cool Avatar to go along with your new Moderator badge eheh :D

Grrr.... I hate avatars! Thanks for nothing! ;) How about an angry-looking silverback gorilla?

Image


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