Thanks Robin for your message, in fact it is hard for me to understand if it worth to continue into the distribution or continue on my way without being constrained to document and simplify as much as possible for the benefit of the group.[Local Link Removed for Guests] wrote: [Local Link Removed for Guests]Thu Nov 24, 2022 9:12 pm CiccioCB might get disheartened like any of us. but he is not a quitter.
Therefore he's not likely to throw in the towel, but he'll go in whatever direction he chooses rather than be constrained by the interests of others.
Annex is pretty damned good, so perhaps we should accept the possibility that it may be as good as it gets... and that anything else which may come along would be added bonus. None of the existing Annex capability depends on progress, so even if its creator retired tomorrow, it will still always remain just as effective as it already is.
Not so for the Annex community though, which is totally dependent on the contributions of CiccioCB and a few others to keep it alive.
Everyone who uses Annex appreciates it, which is why they are using it - so laud CiccioCB with words or contributions if you wish... but the best way to actually show appreciation for Annex and keep its community alive is for users to post their own contributions to show what they can do with it.
The more projects and examples that are published, the greater the interest and encouragement for others, plus offering additional new creativity to attract new users.
Don't be too embarrassed to publish your creation even though it may not be a polished work of art... because it only needs to contain one thing that someone finds helpful to make it worthwhile... and perhaps it may result in some kindly suggestions for welcome improvements.
Not everyone can produce quality projects and examples, but that should not invite judgemental negative opinion or criticism.
We all started out the same before taking different paths, and none of us are perfect whatever we've learned along the way, but only those with the courage to keep learning by their mistakes will still make progress.
There is no right way or wrong way, cos if it works for you in the absence of anything better, then it must obviously be right for you, irrespective of potential for improvement. And if you found it useful for your purposes, then so may others with similar needs.
That is what the Practical Workshop Tutorials are: https://sites.google.com/site/annexwif ... rd-lessons
Simply a collection of 'trial & error' examples which were published for the benefit of others in the absence of anything else.
They are not particularly right or wrong or ideal, merely the best I could do at that time, when everything was on a steep learning curve.
A 'community' needs more than a handful of individuals though, so perhaps others can find something there to inspire an idea that they might publish.
Even non-programmers could contribute by helping to create a list of firmware versions with any noteworthy changes of functionality... such as newly introduced capabilities, or perhaps newly introduced bugs etc.
It could enable users to check through a list for the best firmware version to suit their purposes, which isn't necessarily the latest.
For instance, Annex (esp8266) uses gpio2 for WS2812B neo-pixels, but I seem to remember that earlier versions could be assigned a different pin... so if none of the later features are needed then perhaps an earlier firmware might be better for plugging in a Wemos D1 Mini neo-pixel led shield whose pcb track does not go to pin 2. Similarly for earlier versions with working functionalities which might have got broken in subsequent updates.
CiccioCB is the creator of Annex, but the Annex community is the rest of us, so the survival of the Annex community depends on our contributions, not Francesco.
I continue to love and develop annex but I constantly feel like it doesn't interest anyone and what I do is just ignored.
For example, In the last version, I included a function to save files locally; I thought this was a great feature but I got zero feedback, not even a word.
Seen the "non success" of the Online Flasher, I finally decided to continue into the development of the AnnexToolkit to include the support for the new devices but I fear that will be the last update I'll do.
Even this discussion only reinforces my feeling that this only interests a limited number of people and therefore it is probably time to change direction.
... but C and Micropython are really worn out on this platform, aren't they? And maybe we need to introduce the world much more to the beauty and durability of BASIC after all 