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    Yokemate of Keyboards
    amigadave
    Posts: 2795 from 2006/3/21
    From: Northern Calif...
    When I first became interested in using MorphOS, just prior to version 2.0 being released, I asked what I could do to help and was told that the best thing I could do was to work on updating the documentation. Unfortunately, that request did not seem appealing to me, probably because I didn't (and still don't) feel qualified to write updated documentation and would worry about writing incorrect documentation. I also would not know where to start, but perhaps I will look into that area again with a more open mind, and see if there is anything I can do to improve the documentation we have in the MorphZone.org Library.

    I agree that better documentation would be one of the best ways to help keep any new programmers who show an interest in MorphOS. I am hoping that we can find some new programmers before we begin the long hard task of porting MorphOS to another platform, such as x64, or ARM (or both). If we don't, or can't increase our numbers of excellent programmers for that huge project, I am afraid that I may never see it completed, or be too old to care about it being completed. We have an excellent development team, but none of them can work on a new MorphOS for a different platform full time, so we need as many additional programmers willing and technically able to help out with different parts of such a daunting project, to get it finished in a few years, instead of a decade or more.

    As I have said before, I wish that we could combine all programming resources from the AROS camp and MorphOS camp to work on MorphOS for x64 and/or ARM. We would not be forced to combine the results into just one project, if the AROS programmers wanted to keep working on their AROS distributions and MorphOS remained commercial and closed source, except for the parts of it that are borrowed from AROS code, just like it is now, but with more collaboration between the two camps. AROS can keep Zune, or Wanderer, if they want, and MorphOS can port Ambient, but if they work together on providing SMP and Memory Protection, plus other key modern features that are a "Must Have" for any new modern operating system.

    In the meantime, it would also be nice to have more programmers working on new PPC software, or ports of existing software to MorphOS, so our platform is more attractive and more productive for its existing users.

    The reason I mentioned targeting Linux programmers, instead of Windows, Android, or Mac/iPhone/iPad programmers, is because most of the Linux programmers already code for fun, not for profit, and they are more likely to continue to code for zero profit, than a programmer who is used to having a large paying market, like Windows, Android, or Mac. I think that there are some Linux programmers who would be interested in working on a new OS, so it might be easier to tempt them to become interested in MorphOS, if they knew that in the relatively near future, MorphOS would be completely rebuilt for the platform shift, and they would have the opportunity of creating something "better", by not repeating the mistakes that all OSes have made in the past.

    I think that some new programmers could be recruited by advertizing in the right places on the Internet and describing the goals that MorphOS for a new architecture would be aiming at. The MorphOS Dev. Team members would need to discuss and agree on their goals and roadmap for the future, and choose how to word such an announcement and recruiting advertizements, plus decide how they were going to decide which applicants would be approved to be added to the team, and how to disqualify applicants who they feel are not a good fit for the team.

    We have no control on what the MorphOS Dev. Team does, when they do it, or who they decide to include/exclude in that work. The only things we can do is to think of ways to help increase the number of programmers we have in our community, and work on implementing those ideas to see if they work.

    If I were an experienced programmer, or knew more programmers outside our community, and knew what motivates them, I would have a better idea of what might work to motivate them to work on MorphOS software.

    [ Edited by amigadave 11.08.2015 - 12:35 ]
    MorphOS - The best Next Gen Amiga choice.
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