3 ms·

I always thought of the GPL being more about the distinguished self-importance of programmers than software freedom. Imagine if mathematicians started putting l

I always thought of the GPL being more about the distinguished self-importance of programmers than software freedom. Imagine if mathematicians started putting licenses on their contributions to math. They'd be laughed out of math-town. Look, if you want to contribute to the commons of programming, use a permissive license. If you want to cut out certain people who can't or don't want to use copyleft, use the GPL. If you can't stand the fact that someone might profit off of your work while you get nothing, don't publish anything. Another good but seldomly given piece of advice: don't publish all your half-assed crap on Github. This is software pollution. Nobody wants to read the source code to such garbage as "stfupy3.org", but it will show up on search results regardless. No employer or potential client wants to sift through a list of trash to find the one good thing that you did that one time, that actually shows you know how to finish a program. Less is more!

Wowfunhappy 7y ago
> Nobody wants to read the source code to such garbage as "stfupy3.org" How do you know? It could be exactly what I need for some esoteric reason! Within the past year, I've found several useful projects on Github that their authors who appeared to consider them worthless. --- Edit: As an example, I really wanted a simplistic dictionary app for my iPhone, which used the definitions built into iOS so it could work offline without taking up lots of storage space. Apps like this are explicitly against App Store guidelines. After a chance search on Github, I came across this. Licensed under the WTFPL. https://github.com/forresty-archive/Dictionary https://github.com/forresty-archive/Dictionary I'm not really a developer of any kind—I know basic Javascript—but I was able to figure out enough to get the app working on modern iOS, with modern fonts and such. The result was https://github.com/Wowfunhappy/Dictionary https://github.com/Wowfunhappy/Dictionary Here's what really surprised me—I posted this to the /r/Jailbreak subreddit and I still get PM's once every other week thanking me for the app (which, I think I made quite clear, I didn't write). Apparently english language learners in particular find it very helpful. Suffice to say, I'm really happy that "forresty", whoever they are, posted their rejected iOS app to Github.
- gridlockd 7y ago
  > How do you know? It could be exactly what I need for some esoteric reason! No true scotsman wants to read that garbage. > Within the past year, I've found several useful projects on Github that their authors who appeared to consider them worthless. If the authors truly believed it was worthless, they wouldn't have expended the energy to publish it. But that's not the point anyway. If you drown out your good work with all the crap you may have written over the years, your overall portfolio becomes weaker. In the arts, pretty much everyone knows this. In programming, apparently only the people that are hiring know this.
  - Wowfunhappy 7y ago
    Take a look at the example I edited in above (it looks like our posts crossed). I really do think that app's author considered it fairly worthless, it barely has a readme and it was explicitly given a WTFPL license. I would have thought my barely-tweaked fork was worthless to, and almost didn't share it, but I'm glad I did.
    - gridlockd 7y ago
      Just because that one thing happens to not be entirely worthless, doesn't mean that anything has value. Also, since you're not even a professional developer, I'm not directing that advice at you.
      - Wowfunhappy 7y ago
        > Also, since you're not even a professional developer, I'm not directing that advice at you. I think your implicit assumption that most Github projects are created as a form of resumé building is incorrect.
        gridlockd 7y ago
        I'm not assuming that and it's irrelevant anyway. I'm concerned with what matters, not what represents some majority. The Github profile is (part of) your portfolio and if your portfolio sucks you are worse off professionally. If that doesn't apply or matter to you, that's fine. You can move right along.

Wowfunhappy 7y ago

> Nobody wants to read the source code to such garbage as "stfupy3.org" How do you know? It could be exactly what I need for some esoteric reason! Within the past year, I've found several useful projects on Github that their authors who appeared to consider them worthless. --- Edit: As an example, I really wanted a simplistic dictionary app for my iPhone, which used the definitions built into iOS so it could work offline without taking up lots of storage space. Apps like this are explicitly against App Store guidelines. After a chance search on Github, I came across this. Licensed under the WTFPL. https://github.com/forresty-archive/Dictionary https://github.com/forresty-archive/Dictionary I'm not really a developer of any kind—I know basic Javascript—but I was able to figure out enough to get the app working on modern iOS, with modern fonts and such. The result was https://github.com/Wowfunhappy/Dictionary https://github.com/Wowfunhappy/Dictionary Here's what really surprised me—I posted this to the /r/Jailbreak subreddit and I still get PM's once every other week thanking me for the app (which, I think I made quite clear, I didn't write). Apparently english language learners in particular find it very helpful. Suffice to say, I'm really happy that "forresty", whoever they are, posted their rejected iOS app to Github.

gridlockd 7y ago
> How do you know? It could be exactly what I need for some esoteric reason! No true scotsman wants to read that garbage. > Within the past year, I've found several useful projects on Github that their authors who appeared to consider them worthless. If the authors truly believed it was worthless, they wouldn't have expended the energy to publish it. But that's not the point anyway. If you drown out your good work with all the crap you may have written over the years, your overall portfolio becomes weaker. In the arts, pretty much everyone knows this. In programming, apparently only the people that are hiring know this.
- Wowfunhappy 7y ago
  Take a look at the example I edited in above (it looks like our posts crossed). I really do think that app's author considered it fairly worthless, it barely has a readme and it was explicitly given a WTFPL license. I would have thought my barely-tweaked fork was worthless to, and almost didn't share it, but I'm glad I did.
  - gridlockd 7y ago
    Just because that one thing happens to not be entirely worthless, doesn't mean that anything has value. Also, since you're not even a professional developer, I'm not directing that advice at you.
    - Wowfunhappy 7y ago
      > Also, since you're not even a professional developer, I'm not directing that advice at you. I think your implicit assumption that most Github projects are created as a form of resumé building is incorrect.
      - gridlockd 7y ago
        I'm not assuming that and it's irrelevant anyway. I'm concerned with what matters, not what represents some majority. The Github profile is (part of) your portfolio and if your portfolio sucks you are worse off professionally. If that doesn't apply or matter to you, that's fine. You can move right along.