Hi,
I have remained silent through all of this, and I apologize for leaving people in the dark about the current situation. I had a letter written up a few weeks ago, but I never posted.
To be quite honest I didn't know what to say. For one thing, and I hope people truely believe this but, all the time I've spent on Rapid-Q was one of the most enjoyable experiences in my life because of the great people on the mailing list.
I know how it looks now, like I've double crossed everyone here who's helped me along the way, but I did not go into this demanding anything, and I hope there's no one here who feels that they demand something now.
I created Rapid-Q to help people get started on Windows programming, and I believe that I have, but I'm not going to make any apologies for my decision.
I know this situation has upset a lot of people, but please take away the blame on Geoff and put it where it really belongs, me. It's not like I didn't know what I was getting myself into, because I did.
I can understand the frustration in not open sourcing Rapid-Q in the first place, and I do feel like I let people down because of it, but would it have cost me my job here, perhaps.
I don't know how many here have worked on a project for over a year to just let it go public. Just ask Max Reason to open source XBasic when he first created it, or Carl Gundel for that matter. No one is obligated to do anything. If this is a character flaw on my part, then you must make your own assumptions, are we all bad because we don't open source our creations? Rapid-Q, as it stands today,is still fully useable without royalties. No one here, or anywhere else, can tell you otherwise, Rapid-Q is still free for public consumption, it's just that it will no longer be maintained as Rapid-Q. It may someday manifest as REALbasic to some degree.
The facts are, I could have made more money working at McDonalds than the time spent on Rapid-Q and what Geoff has offered me to stop working on it. So if you think I'm selling out, so be it. I'm not perfect, we all have tough decisions to make, I'm thinking about my future right now, so if this seems selfish of me, then I can't help you there either. We all want to feel like we're doing the right thing, I can't tell you that I am, I can only ask for your forgiveness for my mistakes, and if you feel this is one of them, then you'll know that I'll be paying for it sooner or later.
I hope this letter didn't sound too formal, I hope nothing like this ever happens again either, to me or anyone else. I share in your pain, it hasn't been easy to walk away from people such as Gerome GUILLEMIN, Steven E, Chris B, Erlend, Thomas S, Jordi, Pavel, Bryn, Andrew G, and all those who've offered their support and constructive criticism.
They're all great people and I'm sure you'll all do great things. Thank you for believing in Rapid-Q and for your countless time and energy devoted to helping it succeed, I just hope this experience doesn't stop you from believing in projects like this. I know we've all learned something from this whole situation.
I'm sorry it has come to this, I really feel bad for not saying something sooner, but I hope that this message at least clarifies some things, good or bad, I'm sure you'll let me know. You're all free to speak up, I'm glad most of you have, and the mailing list will not be terminated unless everyone here leaves. The Rapid-Q page will still remain, but it may be moved in the future, you will all know if or when it does. I still have yet to settle in, as I am writing this up in my hotel room, but hopefully we can all move on from this and be better off for it.
Thanks for your attention and support,
William Yu