Sunday, May 8, 2011

Dead Projects

It's quite annoying when you find a nifty open source project only to realize that, upon closer inspection, the project is quite dead.

The first example is OpenRPG. I like that one can create character record sheets which can be cross referenced in dice rolls. OpenRPG's server is a separate component and there are actually many public servers available, which indicates people are still using OpenRPG, even though the project is deader than a parrot in a Monty Python sketch. Some people are using Traipse, a fork that is attempting revive the project, but it may just be nailing the parrot to the perch. I have to play with it a bit more before drawing any conclusions.

The second example is AutoRealm, which I found just today. It looks like a very useful tool for creating maps for role playing games. Not only is the project dead, it was Windows only and written in Pascal, hardly a common language for open source projects. Well, AutoRealm was originally closed source which may explain the unusual choice. A precompiled Windows binary is available which may run in Wine, but I haven't played with Wine in years and wasn't in the mood for that today. Someone started rewriting AutoRealm in Python, but the UI is non functional and the last check in was two years ago. Not a good sign.

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