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Lightworks Video Editor To Go Open Source

Art3x writes "EditShare will release its video editor as open source this summer. Lightworks handles high-definition media, DPX, and RED, shares projects with Final Cut Pro and Avid, and was recently used by Academy-award-winning editor Thelma Schoonmaker on Shutter Island. Introduced in 1989 and bought by EditShare last year, it 'has come from over one million hours of software development,' says EditShare's James Richings. But he says releasing the source will 'generate concepts and capabilities never seen before. I expect that the Lightworks Open Source initiative will transform not only the technology, but also the opinions on what a professional editing tool can achieve.'" From the press release's description, it sounds like the "open source" phase will follow a period of free-as-in-beer downloading.

47 of 205 comments (clear)

  1. Great something by ooshna · · Score: 5, Funny

    People can use instead of their stolen Adobe Premiere programs.

    1. Re:Great something by rwv · · Score: 2, Informative

      I think you're joking, but the open source video editing tools that I've used have all had extremely clunky interfaces. I'm no pro, but I've edited a 90 minute amateur film, so if I can't figure out how to import and splice clips in less than 30 minutes of picking up a copy of your video editing software, I conclude that the software is no good. It's been about two years since I've seriously looked for something, but in 2008 the state-of-the-art for open source video editing wasn't in good shape.

    2. Re:Great something by copponex · · Score: 2, Funny

      Psshh. Have you ever tried to edit AVCHD in Premiere? It's like dragging an anvil through frozen molasses.

      We're all pirating Final Cut on our Hackintoshes. Duhhhhh...

    3. Re:Great something by ZaphDingbat · · Score: 5, Informative

      I agree completely, which is why I'm actually in the middle of writing one for Linux (+ maybe other OS's). A lot of work.

      If anyone's interested, I'm working on a two-fold project: a video framework that works in 4:4:4 linear floating-point RGBA with OpenGL acceleration, and a video editor built on top of it, all scriptable via Python.

      The framework is coming along nicely. I've just begun on the editing interface. You can see recent (but not current) framework code at: http://www.fluggo.com/redmine/projects/show/fluggo-media

      I would be absolutely happy for someone to take the framework and build their own editor on top of it. I would love to provide support for that case. If anyone's interested, drop me a line at brian@fluggo.com.

    4. Re:Great something by cupantae · · Score: 5, Insightful

      if I can't figure out how to import and splice clips in less than 30 minutes of picking up a copy of your video editing software, I conclude that the software is no good.

      I have the same attitude with all products: if I can't figure it out in 30 minutes, without consulting a manual (see below), I just give up.

      Incidentally, I can't read, write, swim, drive or ride a bicycle. I assume none of those things is any good.

      --
      --
    5. Re:Great something by h4rr4r · · Score: 4, Funny

      For an illiterate you made quite an insightful comment.

    6. Re:Great something by cupantae · · Score: 5, Funny

      Thanks. Martha reads out stories and comments. Then I dictate replies of my own.

      [Please help me. He has me locked in his basement and the smell is horrific!
            - Martha.]

      --
      --
    7. Re:Great something by ZaphDingbat · · Score: 2, Informative

      Ack!! No! I've disabled the sign-in barrier.

      I'm coming to this with a different perspective-- I'm actually an editor, too, and I want my editor to focus on, well, EDITING. We're getting all of these open source editors with bells and whistles, but they don't edit very well at all.

      With any luck, I'll be back here in a year promoting my way of doing it.

    8. Re:Great something by dgatwood · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I have the same attitude with all products: if I can't figure it out in 30 minutes, without consulting a manual (see below), I just give up.

      Incidentally, I can't read, write, swim, drive or ride a bicycle. I assume none of those things is any good.

      That's not really a fair analogy. It's probably more like, "I've been driving a car for twenty years. If I get into your car and can't figure out how to turn it on, pull out of the parking place and drive somewhere within thirty minutes, I conclude that the car is no good."

      Basic cut-and-splice video editing is a very simple process. In a good user interface, the actions a user must take to perform any simple and common task should be both discoverable and simple. Any software in which such functionality is difficult or undiscoverable is badly written software, period. You really should not need to read a manual for such basic usage unless the UI is unintuitive, which makes it, by definition, bad software. That's not saying that you should be able to be a power user in thirty minutes. You might not figure out every esoteric feature in thirty minutes, but you should be able to at least get most of the basics.

      To go back to your bicycle example, this is like not being able to figure out how to raise the kickstand in the first thirty minutes. If you find that this is the case, something is massively wrong, and unless the user is a complete and total idiot, it's probably the UI.

      --

      Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

  2. Re:I hope it's under the BSD or MIT licenses. by h4rr4r · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Clearly not oh trollish one.
    The GPL maximizes the freedom of the end users, and software exists solely to be used. It also will ensure lightworks continues to benefit from this open-sourcing. Without the GPL linux would be as unused in the enterprise as FreeBSD.

  3. Be warned by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    You can edit RED with the open source version, but you have to pay if you want to edit blue or green.

  4. open source pixi dust? by ArsonSmith · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Are they going to continue to provide developers and push some form of direction?

    From what I've seen the only successful OS projects are grown from scratch or 50%+ maintained by a single company.

    --
    Paying taxes to buy civilization is like paying a hooker to buy love.
  5. Re:No doubt, will equal GIMP by fotbr · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Finding fault with Blender is* easy, and for much the same reason people find fault with GIMP -- the UI is something you either love, or absolutely despise, with very little in between.

    *Referring to Blender circa 2003, so this may need to be changed to "was". The UI was bad enough at the time to make me not look back.

  6. Nothing good will probably come of this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Yay! Yet another open source project that will likely stagnate at best, or (more likely) will end up with a million different forks due to all of the inevitable bickering about which direction development should go. The only way to prevent this would be some kind of centralized development effort, and I'm not holding my breath. Besides, if they've decided to go the open source route, EditShare has effectively acknowledged that the tool provides them little commercial value, and that in turn implies that the company more or less considers the tool to be dead.

    1. Re:Nothing good will probably come of this by I'm+not+really+here · · Score: 4, Insightful

      the company more or less considers the tool to be dead.

      OR... the company realizes that the benefits of crowd sourcing the application far outweigh the potential monetary gains of keeping it closed source. If the company releases it via BSD license and then develops and sells closed source plugins for the architecture, the massive adoption of the core software will springboard their new plugin products. As the developers of the software, they are best positioned to be the leader in plugin development for this project.

      So, the cynical view that the application is dead completely ignores the possibility that it may simply be more profitable for them to open source it.

      --
      Before commenting on the Bible, please read it first
    2. Re:Nothing good will probably come of this by sznupi · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Besides, if they've decided to go the open source route, EditShare has effectively acknowledged that the tool provides them little commercial value, and that in turn implies that the company more or less considers the tool to be dead.

      I'm sure people on Slashdot can remember many technologies, operating systems or applications which, while great, didn't really have the chance to take off; or died untimely death due to factors external from the product itself.

      Even if this tool can be considered "dead" commercially (as far as selling it goes), it can still have bright times ahead once freed.

      --
      One that hath name thou can not otter
  7. Much-needed pro-level competition for Avid by ev1lcanuck · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm really excited about this move. The first editing system I ever experienced when I was young was a Lightworks/Heavyworks system. My dad (a film editor, now director) loves the Lightworks systems due to their natural and intuitive control systems. I still have an old Lightwave controller sitting around that I've thought about hacking to work with the Avid.

    Currently we work on Avid Media Composer, since it remains the only true pro-level editing software. Final Cut has it's pros but, at least to me, it's more for video editing (by which I mean not sourcing or finishing to film) and smaller projects (promos, commercials, shorts). If you want to cut a feature film - you use Avid. I have arguments with co-workers about FCP versus Avid but we usually arrive at the agreement that Avid is simply the standard to which all other systems are currently judged.

    With the open sourcing of Lightworks I can only hope that the best of modern systems like Avid and FCP can be integrated with the very intuitive Lightworks way of working. At the very least, I hope it scares Avid and Apple at least enough to make them fix some of the problems that currently exist with their systems. More competition is always better for the end user.

    1. Re:Much-needed pro-level competition for Avid by sznupi · · Score: 2, Insightful

      List of features certainly looks nice (it would be even better to see some presentation; I haven't found much, too niche it seems...plus now search results are swamped with this news). For somebody who is generally fine with Sony Vegas + some nice color grading plugin, this almost looks too good to be true...

      --
      One that hath name thou can not otter
  8. Re:Analogy Pendant by uglyduckling · · Score: 4, Informative

    Beer is free when someone gives it away. You get the liquid but not the recipe. That's the point of the analogy.

  9. geek-bait? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    From the press release's description, it sounds like the "open source" phase will follow a period of free-as-in-beer downloading.

    Translation:
    It sounds like the "open source" hype, in combination with a free-as-in-beer download, will win massive marketshare, followed by the release of a "premium" version to capitalize on that.

    Note that this works whether it's released as (netscape-style) open-source, or whether that promise fades away -- as long as everybody got their free copy, and knows that open-source is "around the corner", you can go quite a long way without a shred of code released.

  10. Re:What platform does this run on? by notoriou5 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Lightworks Author 8.2 runs on Mac and PC. http://www.lightworkdesign.com/features/lightworks_82

  11. Two things I noticed by bomanbot · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Maybe thats just me, but does anyone see any system requirements on anywhere? I read the press release, looked all over the company website and still could not find anything even remotely looking like system requirements anywhere.

    I would guess that there is a Windows version and since it seems to integrate with Final Cut Pro, a Mac version seems likely as well, but there is no way to be sure and strangely, I could not find anything.

    Also, it seems that Lightworks was only recently (August 2009) acquired by EditShare. Making it OpenSource now could mean that EditShare maybe was not able or willing to continue developing, selling and supporting the program and now tries to salvage something by open-sourcing it, hoping the community will pick up the slack.

    1. Re:Two things I noticed by euxneks · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Also, it seems that Lightworks was only recently (August 2009) acquired by EditShare. Making it OpenSource now could mean that EditShare maybe was not able or willing to continue developing, selling and supporting the program and now tries to salvage something by open-sourcing it, hoping the community will pick up the slack.

      That's not necessarily a bad thing though, look at blender :) That's taken off like fireweed!

      --
      in girum imus nocte et consumimur igni
    2. Re:Two things I noticed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      It's high-end video editing software. The system requirements are always 'more'. If you have to ask whether your computer can run it the answer is no. Considering that the summery talks about HD and Red video I wouldn't consider anything less than quad core with 4Gb RAM. If you are serious you would be looking more like 16Gb RAM, two or three 23"+ widescreens and a couple Tb of RAID drives for storage.

      If any of this is surprising then you are not working at the level where software like this is necessary.

  12. Good troll! by Colin+Smith · · Score: 2, Funny

    I'll push it a little further by saying. What really makes Richard Stallman the true genius behind Linux is not his code or gcc, but the little bit of virus he put in every GPL.

    How's that sound?
     

    --
    Deleted
    1. Re:Good troll! by dgatwood · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Sure, the BSD license promotes the freedom of companies to close up code you wrote and it sell back to you.

      Ah, but in practice, most of the time, either A. the company keeps it open source anyway (e.g. Apple with most of the lower half of Mac OS X), B. the company builds a closed source version but regularly pushes fixes upstream, or C. the software is in a device where changing out parts of the software is well beyond the skills of a typical user (e.g. your microwave oven). Most of the exceptions to that statement never gained any real traction in the marketplace.

      Sure, you can point out a few prominent exceptions, e.g. Microsoft using BSD's TCP/IP stack in Windows, but do you honestly expect anybody to believe that anyone would have been served by the original stack being under the GPL? Microsoft would never have made their kernel open source anyway, so they either would have rewritten it or worse, developed a competing network standard. Either of those would have resulted in further fragmentation of the market, more bugs that users have to suffer through, and in general a worse perception of computing by the public as a whole. The only way you could reasonably argue that anyone would have benefitted from this is if you honestly believe that Windows (already the dominant platform by this time) would have lost its dominance due to Linux having a better TCP/IP stack sooner. That's a pretty big stretch of the imagination, to say the least.

      --

      Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

  13. Re:Depends... by gyrogeerloose · · Score: 4, Funny

    I refuse to ever use C/C++, because I consider its outdated design [...] and its inelegance and programming inefficiency to be a pain to my brain.

    No problem. All Lightwave development is done in LOGO. Just tell the turtle what you want it to do.

    --
    This ain't rocket surgery.
  14. Re:I hope it's under the BSD or MIT licenses. by raynet · · Score: 2, Insightful

    If you wanna sum up, then you should sum up the times the license is used. And in the long run GPL might come ahead as it will always keep scoring 3 points whereas BSD will score 0 points once it gets closed by some vendor.

    Or instead of thinking what the license gives to the developer, maybe we should give more value on what it gives to the user. With GPL the user will always get the same rights as the developer had, with BSD they can be taken away.

    Also BSD does have nasty limitations, it forces me to retain a copyright notice and other things. Public domain type of license could contain even more freedom.

    --
    - Raynet --> .
  15. Re:What platform does this run on? by moonbender · · Score: 2, Informative

    Nope, wrong Lightworks. Apparently, there's Lightworks the NLE software (now being open sourced), and Lightworks the rendering software (which you linked to).

    --
    Switch back to Slashdot's D1 system.
  16. Re:What platform does this run on? by devent · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I have a PC. Will it run on it, too? Btw, my PC have Ubuntu Linux but since Lightwork will run on a PC it shouldn't be a problem?

    --
    http://www.mueller-public.de - My site http://www.anr-institute.com/ - Advanced Natural Research Institute
  17. Re:Companies Have Caught On To The Viral GPL Garba by dgatwood · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Chrome is also a bad example. It's based on WebKit, and portions of WebKit are under the LGPL. I doubt they've stripped out and rewritten all of WebCore.

    --

    Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

  18. Re:I hope it's under the BSD or MIT licenses. by jedidiah · · Score: 3, Insightful

    > Why do you label him a "troll"? What he says is absolutely true; the MIT and BSD licenses are basically the most-free licenses around.

    And pointless.

    They could have merely put the source in the public domain if they wanted things to be a free-for-all.

    The main benefit of a non Mad Max approach to Free Software is that it gives more developers a better incentive to contribute as they can be sure that their contributions won't be gobbled up by some company and then used against them. People like to forget that this is why the GPL came about in the first place. RMS didn't just decided to go on an ideological tear. His own contributors gave him grief when they found out that their work had been commercialized without their knowledge.

    The GPL is a result of a failure of more open licensing.

    --
    A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
  19. Re:Sure beats what I've been using by icebraining · · Score: 3, Funny

    I use ffmpeg "-ss" and "-t" options to splice videos, you insensitive clod!

  20. Re:No doubt, will equal GIMP by fotbr · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Yet that doesn't excuse the fact that it is (or was, anyway -- as I said, it's been years since I've looked at Blender) valid criticism of it, either.

    And yes, there IS something wrong with learning a clunky UI, IF there's a better solution available. In my case there was, and I would have been stupid to use the worse solution simply because it was open source. Then again, I try to use the best tool for the job, instead of being blinded by any ideology; if that best tool is open source, great. If not, that's fine with me too.

  21. Re:I hope it's under the BSD or MIT licenses. by aristotle-dude · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Clearly not oh trollish one. The GPL maximizes the freedom of the end users, and software exists solely to be used. It also will ensure lightworks continues to benefit from this open-sourcing. Without the GPL linux would be as unused in the enterprise as FreeBSD.

    I don't know how I will modded but GPL is "NOT" for end users. It does not affect end users one bit. End users do not compile or care to compile code.

    If you are contributing to the codebase then you are no longer wearing the "end user" hat but a "contributing developer" hat.

    BSD and MIT license grant more rights to third party developers. Full stop. GPL places some restrictions on release of binaries from code modifications which require publishing of code changes if a binary is released to the general public. Full Stop. Let's stop trying redefine terms like "freedom" and just spell out the differences.

    GPL takes the approach of enforcement of rules if you want to play while BSD relies on good will and a desire to co-operate. One requires coercion and the other is completely voluntary.

    --
    Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
  22. Re:Depends... by h4rr4r · · Score: 3, Funny

    Your comment is beyond awesome. That comment makes the FSM smile upon you and will get you closer to an eternity spent in the shadow of the beer volcano and within walking distance of the stripper factory.

  23. Re:What platform does this run on? by cupantae · · Score: 2, Informative

    According to phoronix, it's available for Linux. Not sure about other platforms. Somebody on the phoronix forums remembers using it on Windows.

    --
    --
  24. Re:Depends... by gyrogeerloose · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Thanks. May you be touched by his noodly appendage.

    --
    This ain't rocket surgery.
  25. Re:I hope it's under the BSD or MIT licenses. by Jurily · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Clearly, the freedom you get with the MIT and BSD licenses exceeds that which you'd get from the GPL.

    It's not a different amount of freedom, it's a different quality, with different goals. BSD is "I want everyone to use this". GPL is "I want everyone to get the updates". We can argue about which one is better all day, but unless you understand both philosophies, it's pointless.

    BSD takes into account the fact that all software can be better by using known good code. GPL takes into account the fact that writing good software is not about the code but the process that leads to the code.

  26. Re:Analogy Pendant by NotBornYesterday · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Normally I wouldn't run way off-topic on a brewing tangent (I'll try to make a computing/FOSS analogy at the end to make it a little more relevant, but I'm not promising anything yet*), but I just got back from the LHBS, and am simply way too stoked to let the opportunity pass.

    buying them can run you over $150 per batch.

    Depends on your ingredients and batch size. I just picked up a 50lb sack of 2-row malt for $40US, and have another on backorder. Also picked up a couple vials of White Labs yeast at half off (no, they aren't expired). I just bought 3lbs of hops (1 x Galena, 1 x Willamette, 1 x Cascade) for $40US including shipping. Propane tank fillup was $15. I'll be brewing 10 gallon batches (sorry, 38 liters for you non-imperial types, or a little over 4 cases for those bad at unit conversion and division) at a cost of ~$40 for ingredients & consumables, or about $0.50 per pint. Compare that to $4/pint at the local pub.

    Unless you already own the equipment

    Right. I gave up trying to cost-justify that stuff a long time ago. No one ever really owns enough equipment anyway. There's always something else you need. It's part of the fun, actually.

    Then you have to count the time-consuming process of sanitizing the equipment

    Ugh. The primary reason I don't brew more often.

    actually brewing beer

    That's the fun part! Well, one of the fun parts, anyway.

    bottling it

    Corny kegs, baby. Best brewing investment ever.

    then drinking it before it expires

    Sufficient alcohol content/hopping levels should keep infections away, if you've sanitized properly. Of course, if you're worried about consuming it before it passes peak flavor, invite friends over for a party. I promise you, they will show. However, I tend to find the old maxim true: The homebrew is ready when it's gone.

    However, if you do decide to do it, it is a very rewarding experience.

    Cheers to that. I take it you brew?

    * Apologia pro vita sua: People homebrew for the same reasons that people use or develop FOSS. Some people are just out to save a buck. Others feel that the mass-produced and mass-marketed products are often lacking in quality, or perhaps they feel that the niche products are often pricey and have an artificially snobby following. Some do it because they realize they can produce something equal or superior (for their tastes and purposes, at least) to commercially available alternatives. Some do it just because they love doing it, they love the process of creation. Brewers usually share their creations freely with others and simply ask for a smile and tiny bit of gratitude in return. Many are content to buy basic equipment and a set of ingredients and combine them as instructed, like someone might download and use Ubuntu without ever peeking under the hood. Or, a brewer might create and refine their own recipes then share them with the world, like a developer might write applications or drivers to suit themselves before releasing it to others who might use it or improve it.

    They often take pride in personally building or tweaking their hardware, whether it is a 2 x quad core server with 32 GB RAM repurposed into a badass desktop (the fans make it sound like a Cessna taking off, but who the hell cares), or a custom-welded brewstand with 3 x 170,000btu propane burners (sounds like a jet taking off - freakin' glorious).

    Commercial brewers jealously guard their recipes and processes. Homebrewers love to share insights and techniques. As a matter of fact, once you get one talking you can barely shut them up (case and point). Homebrewers believe that knowledge is power, and should be shared freely. In fact, they not only personify the free as in beer / free as in speech metaphor, they improve on it, since they are generally happy to freely provide the recipe for the beer just poured you, making a hybrid case of free as in speech and beer.

    --
    I prefer rogues to imbeciles because they sometimes take a rest.
  27. Hilarious! by wyoung76 · · Score: 2, Informative

    If only I had mod points, you'd definitely get some

  28. Re:Orwellian Style GNU Doublespeak by jedidiah · · Score: 3, Insightful

    > What a bunch of retards.
    >
    > Do you GNU idiots actually think anyone is falling for your lame attempts at word games to cover up your shitty viral license?

    I was thinking the exact same thing about you lot that have a notion of "freedom" that neglects human nature.

    --
    A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
  29. Re:No doubt, will equal GIMP by socceroos · · Score: 3, Informative

    I'm not sure when the last time you checked was - but Blender 2.5 is under heavy development at the moment - a revamped GUI is one of the major features. Also worth noting is that the GUI is written in Python and is detached from the backend Model-View style. It is highly customisable now - and the default looks and works well. You'd be happy to know that fully customizable keyboard shortcuts are also available - with presets.

    The Durian team (CC movie by the Blender Institute) is a mix of the best Blender Artists working with the best Blender programmers - makes for startling progress and practical workflow.

    Go have a look at a current Blender build from Graphicall.org - I think you'll be surprised. Let me know! =)

  30. NOT open source. They're just open sourcing the UI by sanermind · · Score: 2, Interesting

    A departure from standard 3rd-party developer programs that limit access, the Lightworks Open Source platform offers an unprecedented gateway into the NLE’s core engine, enabling a wide-range of creative developers to implement forward-thinking features and workflows.
    *
    *
    *
    ...Lightworks Open Source offers a highly collaborative development environment based on powerful and feature-rich underlying technology,

    It's entirely clear from the press release that they have no intention whatsoever of opensourcing the "feature rich underlying technology" of the "NLE 's core engine".

    This is the same sort of thing that Xara tried to pull... using the open source community to add additional power and functionality that all ultimately still depended on a proprietary close-source rendering engine. That went well!

    --

    ---
    the pen is mightier than the sword, the sword is mightier than the court, the court is mightier than the pen.
  31. Re:Analogy Pendant by NotBornYesterday · · Score: 3, Informative
    Sure. Basic beer brewing equipment is pretty much the same as basic wine equipment.
    • 2 x 5 - 6 gallon containers & little airlocks (either plastic buckets with lids and/or glass carboys with stoppers; stoppers/lids need to be drilled for airlocks)
    • rigid tube and flexible tubing for siphoning from one container to another, and into bottles.
    • a hydrometer is helpful, but not strictly necessary

    You will also need:

    • about 50 clean & sanitized 12 oz beer bottles (pop-off, not twist-off, brown glass is best since light harms beer)
    • ~2 gallon cooking pot (preferably stainless steel, aluminum is okay, enamel over steel is okay as long as there are no chips in the enamel - you do not want to expose your beer to regular steel; it will cause flavor problems)
    • bottle capper (you'll probably need to buy this, a wine bottle corker generally won't do the job)

    You can get prepackaged ingredient kits or order a la carte. For $30 - $45US, you should be able to get a kit that contains the following, which should be all you need to brew 5 gallons of beer:

    • malt extract syrup and/or dried malt extract
    • hops
    • dried yeast
    • muslin bag
    • priming sugar
    • bottle caps
    • perhaps additional misc stuff
    • instructions

    There are homebrew books that are helpful in figuring out what to do and how to do it. In my experience, This is one of the best out there, and I highly recommend it for brewers of all levels. Fortunately, there is a huge amount of excellent info freely available on the internet. (Google, as always, is your friend)

    The outdated look of hbd.org is misleading - you'd never know that it holds an excellent beer recipe development tool (click on "Spreadsheet") and recipe database.

    Forums worth checking out:
    http://www.thebrewingnetwork.com/
    http://www.homebrewtalk.com/

    Good luck to you, and enjoy!

    --
    I prefer rogues to imbeciles because they sometimes take a rest.
  32. Re:The entire complier tech world is laughing at y by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 2, Insightful

    One of my friends tried to implement some sort of Scheme-like system language, he had rather strict requirements and he found the LLVM IR model deficient - tail calls, continuation, type system...I can't remember now what exactly was the problem, it was a few years ago - but perhaps they have extended it by now.

    "Type system" complaint doesn't make much sense, to be honest. LLVM is really just "portable assembly". Type system? It offers the basic primitive types, aggregates thereof (arrays, structs), and pointers to them. That is sufficient to build a data structure of any complexity. Any actual type system of your language would be entirely separate, and may not even trivially map to any of LLVM types - the latter are implementation details.

    With respect to tail calls, LLVM has them - unlike C, and that one is actually a big deal because you really have to have tailcall support even on such a low level, because it is something that cannot be efficiently worked around (you can do it if you provide your own call stack, which is obviously not efficient).

    Continuations? If we're talking about full-fledged re-invokable ones (which is what call/cc is), then you can't have them without spaghetti stack, anyway - meaning that you have to ignore whatever the platform (and therefore LLVM) provide you, and roll out your own. If it's just a rewinding facility, then LLVM has it.

    To sum it up: if you can write a compiler of some language to assembly, you most assuredly can write a compiler for the same language to LLVM.

  33. Re:I hope it's under the BSD or MIT licenses. by drinkypoo · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Clearly not oh trollish one. The GPL maximizes the freedom of the end users, and software exists solely to be used. It also will ensure lightworks continues to benefit from this open-sourcing. Without the GPL linux would be as unused in the enterprise as FreeBSD.

    I don't know how I will modded but GPL is "NOT" for end users. It does not affect end users one bit. End users do not compile or care to compile code.

    Unfortunately, there is no (-1, Wrong) moderation. The GPL is for protection of users. It gives the users the right to receive, modify, and redistribute the code. You can see it is for protection of users because it gives these rights only to the users, i.e. the recipients of the binary code. As a programmer who is not the user, you are not entitled to receive the code from the distributor, because they did not distribute the binary to you.

    If you are contributing to the codebase then you are no longer wearing the "end user" hat but a "contributing developer" hat.

    This is provably false. You are, rather, wearing two hats at once.

    BSD and MIT license grant more rights to third party developers. Full stop.

    Artistic and similar licenses grant rights to everyone, while GPL grants rights to users. Full stop. It's right there in the licenses. By default works are covered by copyright. Artistic licenses say anyone can do as they like but you must give credit. GPL says recipients of the program can do as they like. The source code is considered to be the program as well (as it should be) so recipients of the source are granted the same rights as recipients of the binary. Except, of course, clauses about providing source don't apply, since there's no source to the source.

    GPL takes the approach of enforcement of rules if you want to play while BSD relies on good will and a desire to co-operate.

    False. Both are powered by copyright, and thus both depend on the enforcement of rules.

    One requires coercion and the other is completely voluntary.

    Both are completely voluntary. Nobody is forcing you to use either license when you distribute software you have written. BSD and GPL licenses only grant rights! They take nothing away. One license, however, provably provides more freedom for end users, and that license is the GPL, because it requires distributors of binaries to provide machine-readable sources as well. Remember, the GPL came from the desire to modify a printer driver. We're talking about an end-user here. GPL reduces the rights of the author (rights under copyright law) but increases the rights of the end user. Full stop.</snarky>

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"