Want to Help?

Projects » Want to Help?

Most of my projects are personal spare-time projects on which I wish to maintain tight control, so there is limited opportunity for others to contribute. However, as projects mature, there may be opportunities for others to contribute. These possibilities will be mentioned in the project pages themselves. Where I have posted source-code, others are welcome to make improvements and submit them back to me. There are methods other than direct contribution to my projects in which people can help:

For Developers

Helping out does not necessarily mean working directly on the projects listed on this website. There are a range of other projects that do not belong to me which, if developed more rapidly, would help me greatly. My current wish-list is:

WxWidgets

WxWidgets is a cross-platform GUI system. The advantage over other cross-platform GUI toolkits is that it acts as a wrapper for the native GUI system. Other GUI toolkits use their own widgets instead, meaning that applications written using that toolkit will often not look and feel like a native application. Given that the Amiga OS user-base is too small to make writing Amiga software commercially viable, a WxWidgets port would enable developers (such as me) to still write software for Amiga OS, but also release that same software on other platforms in order to have a large enough market.

OWB

This is a web-browser that is based on the same HTML system as the Safari web-browser on Mac OS X. OWB was originally designed for mobile platforms, but ports exist for other systems too. This browser supports modern web standards such as CSS. At present there is an Amiga OS 4 port, but it is currently a minimal browser, lacking in features. Given that this web-site is Amiga OS 4 centric, uses CSS, and that OWB is currently the only CSS capable Amiga OS 4 browser in existence, accelerated development of this browser would be great.

JAmiga

Java is one of many items that are missing on the Amiga. Jamiga is a Java implementation for the Amiga that is under development. However, it is a huge project, and needs help. It currently has a fully functional Java Virtual Machine (JVM), but only a few of the Java classes have their native methods implemented. The native methods are what connects Java classes to operating-system services and the OS' GUI system.

The JAmiga website

For Non-Developers

For those who are not developers, I would encourage you to try to learn to code. It takes time, but can be very rewarding. If software development really is not for you, letting me know that you are using and/or appreciate the projects that I have under development is helpful in and of itself. Knowing that others use and appreciate the work that is performed is a great motivator.

Feedback such as what people like, desired features, and bug reports are also greatly appreciated. If one of my projects crashes, sending a crash-log along with details of how the crash was triggered would help improve the quality of the software. This is all constructive feedback.

The ultimate contribution from non-developers would be donations. As much as I would like to say that money does not matter, the truth of the matter is that donations are a motivator. When someone donates, it means that they appreciate ones work enough to bring out their wallet. This sends a clear signal that the work is worthwhile. Whilst donations are unlikely to be the equivalent of a full-time salary, they can also contribute toward purchases of resources (e.g., hardware or software tools) in order to improve develolpment.