Any Class Viewer users?

[JSH]

I am the project administrator for Class Viewer on SourceForge (linked
project on java.net) and I am curious to know if there are any product
users out there, which may seem like an odd question, but I really
don't know.

I have download statistics (which are down now as SourceForge does
some kind of data migration) but other than that, very sparse data.
Besides, people might download and not use it, or use it briefly and
quit.

Hopefully the question isn't off-topic for this group, or isn't too
off-topic and the post is not really promotional though I guess to
some extent it could be considered that, but is really a question
about metrics.

If you have a small open source project with very little activity and
zero feedback, but you still have downloads, how do you know if it's
not just a failure or if you do have users out there?

For the most part I will admit I consider the project a failure and
kind of just ponder it every once in a while trying to figure out why,
while I do debate with myself if I shouldn't do more to promote it, or
just give up, which is a debate I've done for a couple of years now.

Usually I just decide to do something little here or there, like make
blog post, and then just go back to pondering the damn thing, though
part of me wishes I could put the genie back in a bottle and never
have made it.

IF I could pull it back, it'd be gone and forgotten by now. So my
doing it open source and getting it on SourceForge is the only reason
I haven't deleted it and everything I can about it off of the web.


James Harris

 

[Joshua Cranmer]

If you have a small open source project with very little activity and
zero feedback, but you still have downloads, how do you know if it's
not just a failure or if you do have users out there?

Activity tends to be orthogonal to usage. A mature program like TeX has
very little development activity, but that doesn't mean it's not heavily
used. At the same time, a program in active development may have few
users but be very active as it starts to stabilize.

OTOH, I have seen a few incomplete programs which have little activity
but relatively high usages. It doesn't help that the related fields
(mostly decompiling) fizzled out a few years back and its renaissance
doesn't look to hit for another few years (even Ilfak Guilfanov seems to
have slowed down work on Hex-Rays, but I'm only judging from his blog).

For the most part I will admit I consider the project a failure and
kind of just ponder it every once in a while trying to figure out why,
while I do debate with myself if I shouldn't do more to promote it, or
just give up, which is a debate I've done for a couple of years now.

A simple project doesn't need to be big; my need for the program is
diminished because my main Java project duplicates the features by its
very nature, and I've grown talented using javap or even just reading
the hexdump of a class file. If people want it, they'll find it.

 

[JSH]

FWIW, I think it's entirely on topic, respectfully presented, and about as
non-spammish as it gets.  Indeed, I am motivated personally to take a look at
your project, at least, and I am grateful to you for pointing it out.

Thanks!!!

I think the problem I'm pondering now is trying to figure out with a
small open source project just how well it's doing, which brings the
question up, of what metric?

How do you know if an open source project is successful?

Before I'd have put activity, lots of inputs from others, discussion
over the project as part of any success, but then it's easy: my
project is a failure as it has none of that.

But I do have downloads.

I'm no longer plugged into the development community the way I was in
the past as I was a java developer at a fairly large corporation years
ago, but now no longer and I do just a little niche programming for
personal projects here and there, so the short of it is, the question
in the subject line.


James Harris

 

[John B. Matthews]

I am the project administrator for Class Viewer on SourceForge (linked
project on java.net) and I am curious to know if there are any product
users out there, which may seem like an odd question, but I really
don't know.

I have download statistics (which are down now as SourceForge does
some kind of data migration) but other than that, very sparse data.
Besides, people might download and not use it, or use it briefly and
quit.

Hopefully the question isn't off-topic for this group, or isn't too
off-topic and the post is not really promotional though I guess to
some extent it could be considered that, but is really a question
about metrics.

If you have a small open source project with very little activity and
zero feedback, but you still have downloads, how do you know if it's
not just a failure or if you do have users out there?

For the most part I will admit I consider the project a failure and
kind of just ponder it every once in a while trying to figure out why,
while I do debate with myself if I shouldn't do more to promote it, or
just give up, which is a debate I've done for a couple of years now.

Usually I just decide to do something little here or there, like make
blog post, and then just go back to pondering the damn thing, though
part of me wishes I could put the genie back in a bottle and never
have made it.

IF I could pull it back, it'd be gone and forgotten by now. So my
doing it open source and getting it on SourceForge is the only reason
I haven't deleted it and everything I can about it off of the web.

I've been using javap, but this looks nicer for browsing. For
convenience, I uploaded a simple Ant build script to the patch tracker.
It includes targets suitable for use on the command line or in a
NetBeans free-form project:

<http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=2017547&group_i
d=103154&atid=634008>

 

[JSH]

I've been using javap, but this looks nicer for browsing. For
convenience, I uploaded a simple Ant build script to the patch tracker.
It includes targets suitable for use on the command line or in a
NetBeans free-form project:

Cool. Downloaded it. Thanks!


James Harris