About the future of AMIDST

[stefandollase]

Since this discussion does not really belong to the pull request #87, I created this issue to have a place for it.

I think we should definitely aim to merge the branches/forks again. When I shortly looked into the changes made by @Treer it seemed doable. However, I will have to make some changes to my fork, e.g. to allow easier implementation of multiple dimensions.

I thought about the situation and I think if we want to move forward again, we have the following options:

• Hope that @skiphs shows up again and merges in the forks. This is probably not gonna happen.
• Switch to either https://github.com/Treer/AmidstExporter or my fork as the main repository.
• Create a new github organization for the main repository.

I prefer the third option. Amidst does not really have a main developer at the moment, so by converting it to an organization we can represent this. The organization can have multiple owners and of course also multiple collaborators.

Next, I think we should choose a new name for the project. This has the following advantages:

• We need to differentiate the new project from Amidst and AmidstExporter to make users aware of the merge.
• It allows users to easily find information via google about the new project. If we do not change the name, users will probably find more information about Amidst than about the new project for quite some time.

Also, we should post links that point at the new project page to the project pages of Amidst and AmidstExporter as well as to the minecraft forums, as soon as the new project contains both forks and is stable. Of course, if AmidstExporter is ready to release a new version before the new project is stable, we should point users to AmidstExporter first. To be able to post a link on the project page of Amidst, we would need at least one collaborator that is willing to do this.

My impression is, that there are at least three developers that are interested in further development. That is:

• @Treer
• @flying-sheep
• @stefandollase

Finally, I would like to remove the google tracker for the following reasons:

• It enables us to remove another external library.
• We do only track the application start and the non-random loaded seeds.
• I do not like tracking the user when there is not even a real advantage. Do I miss an advantage?

I am curious about your thoughts. Also, naming suggestions for the new project are welcome.

[crbednarz]

I'm sorry I've been unable to really look over any pull requests for AMIDST. However, I appreciate all the effort that's gone into it.

I'd be more than happy to add all three developers as collaborators to this project if that's something you'd all be interested in.

As for the Google tracker, I think it's perfectly acceptable to remove at this point. When I added it I was mostly looking for what countries were using it most and which version they were using-- for the sake of improving support. Unfortunately, I never managed to do anything useful with the data.

[stefandollase]

@skiphs Nice to hear from you. Thanks for the offer to add us as collaborators. However, the owner still has some exclusive rights, I think. For example the creation of releases and especially the ability to configure travis ci to generate releases automatically. Also, I wanted to move the update information document that is used by amidst to inform the user about a new release, to the github pages service. I also do not know whether a collaborator can configure this service. Thus, it is probably still a good idea to move the repository to an organization, since the organization offers a better permission management. Of course, you can still be one of the owners. Do you mind us to convert amidst to an organization? If not, I will just go ahead and create the organization as soon as a good name is found for it. Sadly, the name amidst is already take as an organization's name. After creating the organization I will add you as an owner. Then you should be able to move this repository to the organization. The advantage of moving instead of recreating or forking for repository is, that github will automatically forward requests to the old repository to the new one. Also, all the issues and pull requests should automatically be moved with the repository.

Regarding the google tracker: I removed it.

[JMoVS]

This sounds great and it's also great to see @skiphs bein back. ;-)

From my perspective, the suggested idea of an organization to handle this from @stefandollase is a great one. Very interested to see what the other developers think and how this will move forward.

[crbednarz]

Sounds good to me.
I suppose we'll have to see with which repo we use. It seems creating a fork of this on the organization would likely be a better choice.

Once it's all set up I'll put up a notice on the forum thread and wherever else its needed. Just let me know. :)

[stefandollase]

Good to hear that. I will create the organization as soon as we find a proper name for it. Since you are back, I guess we do not necessarily need a new name for amidst as a program. However, we need a name for the organization, because "amidst" is already taken for that. I already thought about:

• tools4minecraft ... google replies with results about it being scam
• MWViewer (Minecraft World Viewer) as tool and organization name ... google replies with a link to a website by monitor ware the tool is discontinued, however I do not like using to name due to possible trade mark issues

I was not yet able to come up with a good name that does not cause issues. Any suggestions?

Of course, it is your decision whether to move the repository. If you do not like the idea, we will just create a new repository for the organization. This will leave the old issues and pull requests behind, but it is probably not that big of a loss since they can be recreated for the new repository, if necessary.

[JMoVS]

Throwing around some silly ideas like:

• miwingat (Minecraft World Information Gathering Tool)
• minwomiv (Minecraft World Map Inspector and Viewer) (0 results in google!)

@stefandollase Have you considered licensing issues? Is there a proper license for AMIDST in this repo? Is one needed?

[stefandollase]

Regarding the licensing issues: To my best knowledge, there are no licensing issues. However, I am not an expert for intellectual property rights. Here is what I checked:

Amidst itself is licensed under the GPLv3, as stated in the file https://github.com/skiphs/AMIDST/blob/master/LICENSE.txt. Thus, it does not need a contributor license agreement. Also, it currently uses the following third party libraries:

• args4j -> MIT license
• gson -> Apache license v2
• JNBT -> 3-clause BSD license
• miglayout -> 3-clause BSD license

Libraries with any of these licenses can be used in a GPLv3 licensed project.

Regarding the name for the organization: @JMoVS Thanks for the suggestions! However, I would really prefer a pronounceable name. Currently, I am considering the name toolbox4minecraft for the organization. The tool itself would keep the name amidst.

[JMoVS]

miwingat is pretty prnouncable :D (either mee-wing-at or my-wing-at).

Perfect. Whatever works.

[stefandollase]

@JMoVS You are right, it is pronounceable. However, I meant that I prefer it, when it is obvious to everyone how to pronounce it :-P

I went ahead and created the organization toolbox4minecraft with the new repository amidst. I adjusted several stuff to make the repository work with the new location:

• updated links in the documentation
• added documentation
• adjusted the build process
• adjusted the release process
• created a beta1 release

Also, I added @skiphs as an owner of the organization. How do we integrate the old collaborators? I think we should offer them the possibility to be a collaborator of the new repository, so if you are a collaborator for this repository and want to be a collaborator for the new one, please request it in this issue and I will add you.

@flying-sheep Do you want to be a collaborator again? The alternative would be to fork and pull-request.

In general, I would prefer all changes to be made in pull-requests, even if the author is a collaborator. I will also make all changes in pull-requests.

@Treer I still need to make some changes to allow for an easy merge. However, I added a reference to your repository to the readme of the new repository. It will be removed, when the merge is complete. Do you want to be a collaborator of the new repository?

[flying-sheep]

i have quite some stuff to do and besides am happy with forking.

if i should choose to get more involved again, i can still ask you 😄

[Treer]

I'm happy to be a collaborator, though may just interact using pull-requests.

[stefandollase]

@Treer You are now a collaborator.

[MegaScience]

Just wanted to say good luck, since I stumbled upon this. I expect great things! -waves cane-

[bangsplat]

Thank you so much for picking this up! I'm so excited to have a working AMIDST again.

[stefandollase]

Thanks for your support.

We published a release candidate: Amidst v4.0-beta8 Amidst v4.0-beta10. You can download it here. Please report all bugs that you find in the new repository.

As discussed in toolbox4minecraft/amidst#64, we will release the stable Amidst v4.0 as soon as the stable Minecraft 1.9 is out. Then, we will also:

• create a new thread in the minecraftforum
• adjust the entry in the minecraft-wiki

There are some more things to do for the release of Amidst v4.0:

• put up a notice in the README of this repository which refers to the new repository
• refer to the new minecraftforum thread from the old thread
• change the update document to notify all Amidst v3.7 users about the new version (retracted)

I will write a new entry in this issue as soon as we are ready for this.

Amidst v4.0 uses another update mechanism and document which is directly accessible via Github. Thus, this will be the last time the old update document needs to be updated. If you just put a link to https://github.com/toolbox4minecraft/amidst/releases this link should be valid for all future versions of Amidst.

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Also, I would like to clean up the issues and pull requests in this repository. By that, I mean that I would like to review the pull requests and integrate them (if they are not already integrated) into the new location.

For the issues, I would like to sort them. Most seem to just contain a crash report. These are pretty much outdated, so I will just write a small message that Amidst moved to the new location and they should post a new issue there if it still exists. Then I will close the old issue.

There might be some issues that are reproducible. I mainly want to find these and try to reproduce them in the current version, so they can be resolved.

The goal is to eventually close all the issues and pull request in this repository, so it is clear for everyone that the development has moved over to the new location.

So, I am basically asking @skiphs to make me a collaborator for this repository, so I can label and close issues. I know that I am able to write a post without being a collaborator, but that does not really help to clean up.

• make @stefandollase a collaborator

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Another question for @skiphs about the code. This is the last thing that we do not understand why it was implemented.

There is a mechanism in the code that disabled the move and save player location functionality for a few, quite old, Minecraft versions. However, we do not understand why it was introduced. The player saving and moving is completely separated from the currently loaded Minecraft version. You can even load a random Minecraft version and open any map that was last played in a blacklisted Minecraft version. This results in the blacklist to not have any effect.

Thus, I would like to know why it was introduced. Which problem should be solved by it? Am I missing anything that makes it useful? Is there a problem with removing it?

If there is no reason to keep it, I will just go ahead and remove it, since it has no real effect. It will only result in a quite confusing user experience if a user tries to move a player when a blacklisted Minecraft version is loaded.

• explain the saveEnabled functionality (retracted, see removed version dependent isSaveEnabled flag toolbox4minecraft/amidst#284)

[stefandollase]

Hello again. I just published the stable Amidst v4.0 release. You can find it here.

@skiphs Can you please execute the five tasks from my previous post, which I marked with a checkbox? Thanks :-)

[stefandollase]

Besides the five tasks above, here is another one.

Can you add a short notice to the latest release of this repository that says it is outdated and add a link to https://github.com/toolbox4minecraft/amidst/releases? That would be great. This is because many people directly find the release page via google.

• add notice and link to latest release

[stefandollase]

I am about to release Amidst v4.2, which works with Minecraft 1.11. Also, I removed the version dependent isSaveEnabled flag in toolbox4minecraft/amidst#284, so you no longer need to explain it. Next, a moderator added a notice with a link to the new minecraftforum entry to the old minecraftforum entry, so you don't need to do this either.

However, it would really be nice of you to add me as a collaborator to this repository, so I can add references to the new repository to the README file and to the v3.7 release notes. More importantly, this would allow me to clean up the issue tracker of this repository. Thanks!