Some Armchair FLOSS Methodology

In passing, I have heard some things about FLOSS development methodology over the years that have really clicked with me.

Because I am going to lay out a set of rationales for techniques of FLOSS development, I am going to start by saying that I am not read up on the Free Software Foundation's particular backstory of rationales for these ideas.

I might also add however, that there is room to independently conceive of why these ideas are good, and that that is perfectly fine, or at least very normal (and perhaps even a matter of what is ethical).

In practice, people implement FLOSS licensing strategies for all kinds of reasons, and many of the rationales for doing so are much less intentionally thought out.

And as a matter of good side effects, I think it can be very helpful to proffer up different takes on this stuff to make the path wider to peoples' preferences towards it.

This could be a very long post (if I don't get writer's block).

Nimony vs Julia

Nimony and Julia are a couple "up-and-coming" languages to really be looking out for over the next few years, as they are both really coming into genuine maturity.

These languages would be more comparable to Crystal if they were ready to use for applications development.

Nimony is more-or-less a pre-production Nim 3. It has an extra pinch of distinction in mature functionality, polish, ergonomics, and stability. Nimony has some way to go before it is production ready.

Julia is a fast dynamic language that could start working on maturing solid static compilation for applications development, which I think would significantly bolster the language. Julia already has a set of features that most static languages would be envious of.

Data Centers Bad: Revenge of the Jocks

I have definite views on data centers, which is more than I can say about a lot of things - including AI itself. (This AI wave is a half truth, with every possible bit of crap that can be crammed into a half truth, being aggressively driven into our brains.)

Getting down to brass tacks, data centers are about consolidation and control at every level. It starts at the ownership level and the functional hardware and protocol and software levels of the servers. But then the issue jumps to all the social stuff: technological innovation, controlling technological access, control of information, consumer choice, freedom of the press, privacy, the environment, employment, extraction of wealth, political power. Less people involved in more stuff - massively more stuff - as much stuff as can possibly be absorbed into the most massive monopoly that can be achieved in history.

Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad. These are not the red flags. These are the bad things. What else needs to be said?

Free GUI: "Desktop First"

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Being "desktop first" relates to a lot of things.

Free GUI is all about:

• filling in as many missing pieces of a desktop first system for technical end users
• placing the same level of emphasis on bridging usability to brand new users as well
• spanning the breadth of skill levels in:
• creating
• sharing
• achieving desired personal UX results
  

Free GUI: Configs, Profiles, and Dev Angles

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On Today's Show! 

• Configs are not the enemy! It's how they are used!
• What are Free GUI profiles? What do they do?
• What is meant by "angles of development"?

Modern FLOSS Application Languages

This post is looking at a couple [more] selected languages of interest to me. The primary focus is languages that are good candidates for modern graphical application development in the world of FLOSS. I primarily look for things that can work with GTK4, or that have their own dedicated GUI toolkit that is highly FLOSS oriented, and more pointedly, very FOSS compatible.

• automatic safety (garbage collection or other method)
• does not use a web engine
• high efficiency
• good for desktop applications
• forward looking features

Free GUI: Realm of Usage

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Recapping the intended uses of Free GUI is in order, including some elaboration on its relationship to the potential rise of AI development.

I wrote a post about a term I use: "Realm of Usage" or "Usage Realm." (Not sure how, but it got deleted.) This will help a little in describing these ideas.

Free GUI: Development Tiers

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("Development Tiers" pertain to the use of Free GUI tools to develop alternative equivalents to full desktop applications. There are many other uses of Free GUI, so this post is really not actually about the full Free GUI idea, although it sounds like that.)

Detailing Free GUI's concepts of development tiers is dangerous, because there is a lot that can conflict before the acts of finalizing design and then further creating a real world implementation.

The concept of inventing development tiers like this is extremely alien to any existing development techniques. Multiple major aspects of Free GUI hugely converge around these tiers to create new positive trade-offs of development and sharing workflows, and systemic coding optimizations.

AI as an Extension of Machine Learning

AI is not strictly unintelligent. It is not exclusively fraudulent in the sense of it being un-AI.

Yet the marketing of AI is deceptive and confusing by design.

Free GUI: What is the Purpose?

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In the broadest sense, the purpose of Free GUI is to enhance an alternative method for developing and accomplishing graphical UI tasks on the desktop and other end-user devices, and to expand the potential of the new and unique positive trade-offs of such a system's capabilities and workflows.

There are numerous subsidiary and secondary purposes and/or positive side effects that can play into the design strategies of the system for this goal. 

Free GUI: What is the Porpoise?

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The porpoise is an orca, also known as a killer whale. It is a toothead whale, because it toots out the top of its head. Just kidding; it is a toothed whale, because it has teeth.

Free GUI: Core System Capabilities

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Core system capabilities is referring to anything that smooths out system workflow and workflow between applications and development, such as:

• copy / paste and other typical functions
• data type / format recognition between applications
• system keystroke recognition
• other input recognition
• core graphical functions
• common application assets
• common graphical tooling
• common data formats and tooling

Most of these things sound pretty regular. But this post is more about discussing the system capabilities that make the difference between this Free GUI concept of system capabilities, and what has existed to this point. The differential between these is about the concept of what capabilities can (and should) be moved from the application level, to being taken on as generic capabilities of the larger containing desktop environment.

Free GUI: Core Applications

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Major desktop environments develop "core applications" that use the right GUI tools to make them ultra-compatible with the environment. This typically consists of a couple system utilities, a settings manager, a file manager, and a terminal emulator.

Free GUI's equivalent alternative to developing core applications is a set of assistive tools for creating its special form of custom applications.

The form that these tools come to exist in is a large contributing factor in why the application ecosystem generally is so up in the air. 

But I am going to describe these ideas in this post (and maybe some more posts) and attempt to describe their respective reasoning.

How I See the Zig Language

"Zig" rhymes with "dig", because Zig digs deeper. It has more detail in memory management, and it has its own independent compiler with its portability that bring different levels of potential.

It is (playfully) the final dig, as in A, B, C, D, . . . Zig.

Free GUI: Application "Ecosystem"

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The aforementioned application "ecosystem" is the most moving-est of the moving targets in this ideation of Free GUI. It is kind of a blind list of disconnected wants that likely overlap with each other, and are very hard to express in words (as UX design already is, let alone when it's a venture into new territory.)

The point is to hone in on the purpose that these ideas intend to collectively accomplish - a beating heart that ties them together to make them jive and click to produce something special. A killer whale is big, but a beached whale is too big and too slow, not to mention pretty morbid boys.

Free GUI: Window Manager Capabilities

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This post here mentioned some things about a window position API. This post is about describing some more API specifics and window manager capabilities.

I make a low key distinction between "capabilities" and "features" here, because capabilities could emerge into various custom features, or they could be prevented from becoming available to a use-case or workflow. It would all depend on any given system's configuration and scripting.

Free GUI: Containerized Apps (Plus Segues)

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A desktop and application menu should be able to recognize and handle designations of containerized GUI applications to maintain a UX that makes sense with their usage context and priority.

Containers in this context might be used for handling favored application versions, or alternating versioning, or handling applications with multiple different configurations. This might also be useful in a development context. It might apply to making something like Docker or Podman more convenient on the desktop.

Free GUI: Browser Engine

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Free GUI needs a browser engine that can work with a system-wide customizable toolbar system, and whatever other system-wide features that get incorporated into the application ecosystem infrastructure. (spoken with a mockingly nerdy lisp while pushing your over-sized glasses back up your nose.)

More on Free GUI

Some additional random thoughts and ideas around Free GUI.

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The Fast-Track Philosophy

The fast-track philosophy is very much about mitigating a chasm between advanced capability, and a perceived chaos of freedom. Perhaps one might reference the book: "The Cathedral and the Bazaar" to understand something about this tendency of FLOSS software. I don't know if that really fully embodies the issue per se, but I think it is related. 

The general concept is presented kind of like FLOSS is the Universe, and its limitations in production are like the speed of light, in that there is some natural law preventing it from building highly organized software. It is only capable of creating a bunch of disparate little street venues (a "bazaar"), as opposed to a highly architect-ed system (a cathedral). This is a real can of worms.