[josm-dev] .jar file size is too big

Dirk Stöcker openstreetmap at dstoecker.de
Sat Jul 18 12:49:07 BST 2009


On Sat, 18 Jul 2009, Maarten Deen wrote:

> Than you make localized versions _and_ one "have-it-all" version. Make the
> "have-it-all" version available in the directory it is now and have the
> localized versions "hidden" in a directory with its name so that novice users
> can't find it.
> Somehow I get a big sense of "I'm the programmer and I am doing it my way" from
> this discussion (and have gotten that on previous occasions in other OSM areas).
> Doesn't the programmer want to cater for the users of his program? Jeez, it
> appears to be a minor fix from which nobody loses anything and we make such a
> fuss about it.

It is not about the possibility of such versions but each new release we 
introduce requires maintaining which means I have to care for it the next 
time. I wont do this without a good reason. Something like "It sounds like 
a good idea to me" is no reason for me to investigate work into. There is 
a big difference between what people think software is used for and what 
it is or will be used for in reality.

Frederiks idea to have a fast loading web variant sounds useful to 
me, but this has nothing to do with main josm. The jarindex suggestion 
in relation to webstart seems to be a solution for this issue. So 
if someone really thinks this is worth the effort, please do the work. I 
already made webstart available at all even I myself do not need it.

Only to make some stats:
Since yesterday we had:
- ~20 downloads of MacOS version
- ~90 downloads of Windows exes
- ~350 webstart usages (which probably means less than 50 users)
- ~950 downloads of JAR's

For each of MacOs, Windows and Webstart I spent about two days of 
integration to get the stuff running smoothly (where others did the 
initial work) and as you can see from numbers only the JAR downloads are 
really used well. I wont do this for plain ideas.

So if someone has code, suggestion, improvements which are sensible and 
have a use case - fine - make a prototype and I will consider to move it 
into the main line. Maintainership not only means to integrate patches 
from all sides, but also to finally decide in which way the software will 
go (based on the ideas and suggestions of all the developers - that's why 
we have e.g. this discussion). And sometimes this means to say no (or also 
"not yet").

Ciao
-- 
http://www.dstoecker.eu/ (PGP key available)





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