Invenzzia... in English - Invenzzia

SVN is active!

Zyx — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 08:10:00 +0200

Unfortunately, the configuration of a version control system on our current server is not as simple as on Sourceforge.net. But now I found some time and ideas, how to make it work and finally... there it is, we have an SVN repository. It's available under the address http://svn.invenzzia.org/ - we still have to install a good browser. Today I'm going to upload the source code of the new OPL and TypeFriendly, a documentation generator almost ready to its first release. All the instructions, how to connect, will be published on the main site.

New Invenzzia.org

eXtreme — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 17:20:00 +0100

One month ago we had no time to prepare a good website for our group so Zyx made something temporary. Today I present a better and more complex solution. The website has been updated with texts and articles about our team. We've got still a lot to do with organization but our website and devblog are almost finished.

I installed and configured dotClear2 from scratch. Now, there is no problem with mixed Polish and English entries because I set up two independent miniblogs on one installation. User language detection is now integrated to the website's system and it is based on cookies and browser settings. I made also nicer and more friendly theme.

And why not Wordpress? I don't like it. There are no real and friendly templates (yes, I love sweet chaos with mixed PHP and HTML). So far, I had an unpleasant opportunity to create from scratch a template for Wordpress and it was a terrible experience. I have been working with dotClear2 earlier and it is very easy to configure everything and convert default theme to website's design. Moreover, it is a nice piece of OOP code in PHP5. ;-)

Team Invenzzia hasn't got the official logo yet. This one on website is only a temporary solution.

Licensing

Zyx — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 10:19:00 +0100

From time to time, I return to the library licensing issue. Undoubtedly, the right choice of a license is quite significant for the project success or failure. Simple, permissive licenses are very easy to follow and use, but in my opinion, they are quite dangerous for the project itself and can lead to some abuses. On the other hand, we have a GNU LGPL license, which has been used by Open Power Template so far. It provides the correct protection of the code, however the linking with non-GPL software is quite complex and produces many questions. Let's take a look: we write the libraries for all the website programmers and authors of complete scripts, whether they are open-source or not.

I decided to check, how much place the "simple" explaination of LGPL conditions to the end user would take, especially if he is about to make a commercial use of his software. I added the new appendix to the documentation and began to write. The result was a two-screen-long list of explainations, why and how the website creators can use it, when the source code must be published etc. Of course, it is unacceptable. I don't like too complex constraints and my intention is not to force the others to follow them unless there is a significant reason.

The reason why I chose LGPL, was to protect the library against changing it into a proprietary software. Such story happened to Wine project, distributed under the X11 (MIT) license. After a while, a proprietary versions appeared, whose creators did not wish to share their source code. Although one 150-KB library is not too valuable, I prefer to be calm and be sure, especially if the other project are going to appear. Unfortunately, there is no license that would suit to our needs:

- Full right to link with open-source and proprietary software under the condition of retain/reproduce copyright information, and retain the license conditions in case of source code.
- Requirement to redistribute the code itself (intented to link with non-author's software) with the source code, and as a consequence, retaining the license.

I think such license would be the best protector of end-user laws. By forbidding the redistribution of the library itself only in a binary form and/or witch changed license, he is sure that every OPT package found in the Internet can be used in the same way, as the original one. If he encounters a closed-source version, it means that it is adapted to this exact project and it is not indented to link with other scripts.

The best candidate is one of the modified BSD licenses without the advertising clause. Unfortunately, I'll have to add the statement mentioned above on my own in English, and the legal language is not so easy. It will take some time and probably will require some help from the West. That's why the development versions of OPT will be still available under GNU LGPLv3 and the final release will be released under the terms of much easier license.

Except that, I would also like to provide a paid versions of the libraries, inspite of using a liberal license. They would not be expensive - the price of $10-20 should be acceptable to everyone interested. The income would be used to keep the domains, servers and advertising, because it requires some money. The paid version would be the same, as the free one, when it comes to the source code, but it would include some add-ons. The ideas are:

- Additional articles and tutorials.
- The right to include them into your documentation.
- Sample projects with well-documented source code.
- Earlier access to the new releases.
- Additional releases in case of finding any non-critical bug.
- The right to provide detailed information about your project on our website.

Unfortunately for the international user, for some time it will be available only for Poland. The international service will require some extra preparations. However, I think the idea is good and everyone should be happy. We have the money to keep our website and resources alive, the customers, because they have some extra content and rights and the rest of the users too - in order to convince them, we will try to prepare new tutorials, FAQ-s etc.

Let's go!

Zyx — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 12:29:00 +0100

Welcome to the devblog of the new programming group Invenzzia. The reason that I formed them are my open-source projects which need a good organization and infrastructure. To begin with, the group will take care of my advanced template engine that exists for over three years so far - Open Power Template. It will become the first part of a bigger series "Open Power Libraries". Currently, we have already begun setting up everything and our website is run part by part. I'll do everything to make sure it won't last too long.

As a typical English-language user you haven't probably heard about Open Power Board project. It was a Polish initiative started in the end of 2004 as a result of commercializing Invision Power Board. The goal was to create an open-source discussion board by the Polish PHP community. However, the project was closed after a couple of weeks, because almost everyone said they have no time to develop it. In fact, the only people who were still active were me with Open Power Template and Tomasz "Slump" Szczupliński as a manager. I tried to reactivate the project in 2005, but there was the same story: everyone except Slump and me went away. I gave up and decided to create more open-source libraries, using the infrastructure left by OpenPB. I managed to make the first stable release of OPT and started Open Power Forms, a library for data validation and form processing integrated with OPT. The code is still marked as beta, because I did not have anyone to finish the JavaScript part, although the PHP-side solutions proved their effectiveness many times.

Of course the situation could not last forever. Two months ago I decided to close OpenPB definietly and throw away almost everything that had any connections with that project. The idea of a new programming group came to my mind and I asked some people whether they would like to participate in it. The team is formed by:

Jacek "eXtreme" Jędrzejewski - PHP/JS programmer and XHTML/CSS hacker. Personally, he's my brother.
Radosław "Radzio" Piekarz - PHP/JS programmer. Personally, we study together.
Tomasz "Slump" Szczupliński - our manager mentioned above.
Tomasz "Zyx" Jędrzejewski - or in other words - me. I code libraries and everything that speeds up other software.

In the beginning, we are going to finish Open Power Template 2, as well as Open Power Forms. We have some more ideas, but they will be coded later. Anyway, we'll try to provide a great set of open-source tools for PHP that present a completely new point of view to many issues.