RE: Open Source

["Jonathan Shore" <jshore@example.com>]

> From: Frank BENNETT [mailto:bennett@example.com]
>
> Hmm.  Pardon me for intruding on the discussion, but this puzzles me.  How
> does one decide whether enough demand exists, and if the answer
> is "yes", what
> decision on disclosure follows from that?


Good question - I think I know where you're going with this.  Two ways both
with advantages and disadvantages:

* put the source out there and see
* guess

The first approach is not as simple as one might think.  Requires placement,
procedure, a little "marketing", documentation, and some work to take it out
of its environment.  The success of the response will depend on all of
these.  Simply placing the source as-is is much less likely to attract
developers or users of the app/env.

As for guessing, if my application is tightly bound to a specific
environment, and that within a small niche of interest for most users, I
would have to do a lot of work to make it appeal or be usable by a larger
base.  This is something I cannot afford to do at the moment.

JS