I'll be 72 next week, so that's the time Duncan is looking into the future. Without Duncan's in depth and detailed explanations (and patience to do this again and again) I would have stopped using Pan a long time ago. Reading his posts is a very well spent time!
Thx 2 Duncan, Heinz On Fre, 2016-05-20 at 06:17 +0000, Duncan wrote: > Lacrocivious Acrophosist posted on Fri, 20 May 2016 04:17:51 +0000 as > excerpted: > > > > > But there is a center of gravity for the Pan project, and now it > > moves > > back to that center, as it has done for decades. That center is > > Duncan. > > > > Without Duncan, Pan would not have survived the lean times that > > have > > come more than a few times during Pan's history. Duncan embodies > > the > > institutional history of the project, groks the evolution and > > intricacies of Pan in ways that are unique and probably without > > peer, > > and for decades now he has offered quality help to anyone who asks > > for > > it. > > > > Duncan is Pan's rock against the tides of entropy, and Pan is the > > better > > for it. Is it odd to offer such praise to a non-developer? I don't > > think > > so. Every project needs glue, and continuity, and Duncan has and > > continues to provide that, and I for one am very glad he does. > Thanks. That is powerful, man! > > In all humbleness I had thought somewhat the same myself from time > to > time. Those months and years without a pan dev do get lonely and > there > was a time when I was actually beginning to wonder if it was time to > uninstall pan and shut off the lights on my way out. But > fortunately, > KHaley, and then Petr Kovar and Heinrich Mueller, came along, and we > even > got some pretty huge and long on the drawing board features, so pan > is in > better shape now than it ever was. And in part, they had something > to > come along /to/, because I was still here as a community nucleus > around > which a community could re-form. =:^) > > But it's hugely different coming from someone else, and the way you > put > it was powerful enough I was even tearing up to some extent! > > I'll be 50 next year, and while I expect and hope I'll still be > around > FLOSS and even pan 20 or 30 years from now, when I'm in my 70s (dare > I > even think 80s?)... Imagine some 80-year-old with a walker or > wheelchair > in a nursing home running gentoo, and on some mailing list for the > pimp- > ass-gopher-client... In 30 years that could be me, still holding > forth > on the possibly otherwise long abandoned list for the pimp-ass- > newsreader, which he's running in some container or VM with an old > platform as it just doesn't work on wayland 2046 and won't build with > gcc > 53! > > (Much as today I still run the only slaveryware app I still run on > my > computer, the old 1993 DOS edition Master of Orion, in the DOSBox > DOS > emulator. And given my rate of usage, if they're still around then, > I > may still be using my current $50 TB block account from astroweb, > too. > Most of my news usage is actually text, on gmane's list2news > servers.) > > Pimp-Ass Newsreader. It's been a long time since I mentioned what > pan > actually originally stood for. Back before the C++ rewrite that was > introduced as 0.90, I used to insist that the proper form was always > all- > caps, PAN, because it was an acronym. But the term pimp-ass isn't > exactly politically correct these days, and I took the opportunity > the > 0.90 rewrite introduction presented to switch my self-consistency to > the > lower-case pan, which is after all both easier to type, and the > actual > name of the executable. > > ... Now /what/ were you saying about pan historian?... =:^) > > > Anyway, I've been thinking. I'm old enough now, reality suggest I'm > not > going to learn C/C++ and be a good developer, as I had hoped years > ago > when I switched to Linux. And I may or may not eventually switch > jobs > and be a Linux sysadmin, professionally as well as literally > adminning my > home systems as I've been doing now since the 16-bit DOS and DOS- > based MS > Windows era. > > But you know, just as the Linux and programs I run are the work of > literally thousands of people and multiple millions of person-hours, > both > developer, and artist and documentor and list regular answering my > questions and those of others, I really have made a direct difference > in > at least hundreds of people's lives, if not thousands (there are > more > lurkers and people later finding answers via google than many > appreciate, > and indirectly, counting the folks that depend on the systems whose > admins I have helped, in the MS groups before the turn of the century > and > on the Linux lists like the btrfs list I'm on now after, it could be > tens > of thousands). > > But it's not just me. It's all the devs and artists and documentors > and > regulars on the lists, that have helped me and others, just as I too > have > done. It's all that, that makes the FLOSS community. > > And I may be just one person in that community of hundreds of > thousands, > but I'm proud to be able to say I've done my part. > > And you know what, no matter where or when I die, and no matter what > my > eulogy states if I'm not just some other unidentified dead guy ITRW > (in > the real world)... > > I know that somewhere, someone online is going to be wondering what > happened to that Duncan fellow, and missing his help and > explanations. > > And *THAT*, along with pan continuing to live today, is my *REAL* > eulogy! > > Thanks for giving me a glimpse of it, just now. As I said, it's > powerful > stuff. > > And what it has given me is the best feeling in the world![1] > > Now if you will excuse me, there's this liquid on my face I gotta > deal > with (for about the forth or fifth time writing this)... > > --- > [1] I remember the first time I caught that high. I was still back > on > the MS IE groups, and someone had been on vacation, to come back and > see > partial quotes of something I had written, but not my original post, > as > it had unfortunately already expired. They asked for a /repost/. > > A repost from !me!! Anybody that has been on newsgroups for > awhile... if > people are asking for reposts, you've hit it big, and can rightly > claim > to be among the elite of the elite among posters from that > group. And > they were asking for reposts of !my!! posts! > > I was walking on air for a week! > > Of course this one's a bit different, particularly given where I took > it, > but it's every bit as powerful! > > I've some real-world challenges (no I'm not sick, thanks, but moving, > the > landlady sold the the property to the city to make way, so the > renters > including me gotta move, but at least the city's paying for the > move) > coming up, but this will stay with me thru them. > _______________________________________________ Pan-users mailing list Pan-users@nongnu.org https://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/pan-users
