Thanks for the comments.
> Will the Community Edition provide source code or is that just for these first alpha releases?
The Coolite Toolkit is dual licensed (Profession & Community == Commercial & GPL 3.0). As part of the requirements for distributing GPL software, you must make the source code available. As long as there is a Coolite Toolkit Community Edition, the source code for that release will be available to download at the same time. This is our commitment to the Coolite community and the open-source community as a whole.
> I know you are wrapping up the grid changes for the next release and those are on a private SVN correct?
Correct. Our initial work on the GridPanel should be checked into SVN early next week. I plan to release one (maybe two) more builds of 0.5.x (0.5.2 & 0.5.3), and then all other enhancements (including GridPanel) will be released with v0.6.
> Why not allow SVN read-only access for those community users who want to a) stay on the bleeding edge,
> even if the designers aren't fully tested and / or b) want to help write and submit code?
The reason SVN access is not an available option for the Community Edition is mainly do to a logistical and technical problem. Let me elaborate...
As per the recommendation of the GPL 3.0 License, each Coolite .cs file is stamped with the proper GPL License Notification and Copyright statement. The Coolite Toolkit is developed and committed to SVN with the Profession Edition license notification and copyright statement. When we're ready to build a public release we trigger a build process which copies the project and replaces all the Professional Edition license and copyright statements with the Community Edition license and copyright statements.
The Community Edition is effectively a snapshot of the current code base at the point of release.
We can not make source code available to Community Edition users without stamping the files with the GPL license and copyright statements.
Soooo, the build problem is...
- We would need two separate SVN repositories. One for Professional Edition, and one for Community Edition. Each file (.cs) in each Edition needs to be stamped with a unique license and copyright statement.
- Those two SVN repositories would need to be kept in sync. When a file is committed to ProfessionalSVN, the file would have to be copied and committed to CommunitySVN. The CommunitySVN would be read-only. No development would actually happen in the CommunitySVN. It would only be "kept sync'd" with the ProfessionalSVN.
- During the copy/commit/sync to CommunitySVN, the license and copyright statements at the top of each changed file would have to updated.
Community Edition SVN access would be possible if I can solve the above problems. It's clearly in our best interest and would make a better product if Community SVN access was possible. Community SVN access is something I REALLY want to enable, but lack of time and specialized SVN skills are getting in the way.
Either way, SVN access will only be available with support subscriptions and access would be read-only. No public (i.e. sans support subscription) will be available. We would love to accept direct community contributions, although because of potential licensing and/or copyright conflicts, we can not allow any public write access to SVN.
We can grant write access to the SVN repository, and would love the help, but first we would need to sign an agreement.
On a related note.... We're also looking to hire another core developer and another dedicated person to focus on support, documentation, samples and evangelism. If you, or someone you know, might be interested, please contact me (geoff [at] coolite [dot] com). Ninja skills with C#, asp.net webcontrols and JavaScript are required. ExtJS experience is obviously a major+. These would be remote "telecommute" positions.
I hope this helps answer some of your questions.