I had some trouble writing these lines because usually I do not want to publish criticism. But Oliver told me that it would be a good idea and I don’t want to disagree :) .

Valid for all open source projects, also the JEDI API&WSCL projects heavily depend on their users. This is not a company where people work all day to make a  great project. I and other members of JEDI use our spare time after real work to bring forward projects such as JEDI.

Unfortunately, time has changed and less and less people want to provide their skills and manpower in projects like JEDI…and I am not talking about JEDI API exclusively. That is a pity because we will not provide you with source code forever. Instead the process will come to a halt and we will see more and more questions in newsgroup asking why the project doesn’t work anymore in Delphi 2020 (or similar).

I don’t get it. There are many new API functions in Vista and Windows 7. And I see a lot of people writing conversions from C to Delphi so they can use the new functionality. But instead of donating these sources to JEDI API they post it to their local forum or use it in their project as an internal unit. Usually, I come along and ask these people if they want to donate their source to JEDI API. And the chat goes like this:

Christian: “Hey, I am from JEDI API. Maybe you heard from us. It would be great if your conversion could be integrated into JEDI. Do you agree?”

X: “Yeah, I’m using your projects a lot. And of course, I would like to see my source integrated into JEDI.”

C: “Well, I need your source code to be converted to some standards we use. I will send you more information about this easy process. If you have further question just ask.”

X: “Eh? Sorry, but I don’t have time to put more effort into this. Can’t you just do it yourself?”

Let me answer: Well, If we could do it ourselves we would already have done it. But that means that we would need to give up our jobs and private life to convert over 20.000 functions, interfaces and types only for this project.

Did you know that there is a template that shows you how to create a JEDI API file?

Also it often happens that I don’t hear anything from them. Therefore these conversions never get integrated because I need an explicit agreement.

On the other hand there are many people who like just to use the source code in their own project because it makes it easier to write good programs.
May I ask what you did to keep alive the project that you gained from?  I have to say from experience that the donations in source and money (in relation to current software prices) are that rare that zero (0) would describe it best. Luckily, this is not entirely true but it is very close to the truth.

Fortunately, there are a lot of companies which are generous and allow us to use their products for free. You can find the list  in the sponsors section of this blog. With a monetary donation of nearly zero we could never use their products. I cannot stop saying: “Thank you!“

Also let me use this article to thank all the people who helped or are still helping in these projects. I want to thank them again and again and again! And let me thank the donators again (I wrote them a mail).

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Christian