What can I as a simple user do to prevent a software to get abandoned

Grobe · 02-05-2021, 02:26 PM

Hi folks.

First - just a boring backup story
Since like 20 yrs ago, I learned to get use of RPN calculators, and just shortly after, in most cases are able to punch the numbers faster than those with regular calculators. During this time, I always had to get an RPN calculator installed - this was before I started to use Linux.

A couple or three years ago, I discovered Orpie - a terminal based RPN calculator that is very effective to use because I can use keyboard only.

My personal issue - still part of the boring stuff
As of today, I know that Orpie is no longer supported by Fedora 33 (as I using just now), so I have a forum post going on the Fedora forum trying to force installing this program, but that is difficult to make it work and have to do some "tweaks" that may or may not work.

Now I think I can get to the point (hopefully not that boring)
As a simple user (no programming skills) - are there any actions I can take at all in order to promoting a package/app that is on the edge of becoming obsolete, so that it at least get accessible via some actual existing repository ?
Is this a bad thing to say here? But I'll happily pay some bucks if someone make Orpie available for the major distros . . .

Galculator ?
Yes - I know. Galculator is a lovely app and my second go-to calculator. However (I assume you'll ask, but I can't really put words to my preferences) there is this thing about Orpie as a terminal based calc, It's just my personal choice. Maybe I'm weird, and that's just the way it is.

Pagonis · 02-09-2021, 03:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Grobe

Is this a bad thing to say here? But I'll happily pay some bucks if someone make Orpie available for the major distros . . .

This. Pay money. Setup something like Patreon (there should be something for open source projects) - put "bounties" to update this app and someone will take it.

Grobe · 02-09-2021, 10:03 AM

Thanks man.

It sure will feel better than waste money on closed source companies with huge administration departments . .

I have a couple of questions on this - I did a quick google search for "put bounties open source" and it returned a waste amount of results. Do you happens to know what sites to recommend and what sites that is not safe to use.

Also - is it possible to roughly estimate what kind of money it takes for such kind of work?

And a general note, this bounty thing is a totally new concept for me - what other possible traps should I avoid here ?

fatmac · 02-09-2021, 12:48 PM

Quote:

dc
This calculator is an standard Unix command. You find it on eventhe oldest unix systems. It can do only basic arithmetic but it canhandle very very long numbers. To start it just type dc and then anumber followed by "k" (e.g: 6k and press return). This sets theprecision. Now you can do calculations (+-*/) and you print thelowest level of the stack with "p". You end it with crtl-d. Name:dc (desk calculator)Homepage:Part of every unix system. Under Linux the packagename for dc is called bcLicense:normally the same as your Unix system

https://linux.die.net/man/1/dc

Maybe this will work for you.

Jan K. · 02-09-2021, 02:25 PM

Since you have the source code, clearly it must be simple to compile to whatever distro you want??

Of course not by me, as I'm as close to useless as is possible... but I can guess!

https://opensource.com/article/19/1/orpie

http://www.linuxfocus.org/English/Ja...ticle319.shtml

leclerc78 · 02-15-2021, 05:40 PM

Run specialized VMs ?
I don't mind running outdated programs/OSes in Virtualbox as long as they are not exposed to the Internet.
For example I still maintain my Garmin GPS - POI updates, for travel - using Windows 7 !

* Oh yes, I love RPN, until my HP35 died of overdose (twice) from coffee.

evo2 · 02-15-2021, 06:08 PM

Is it really abandoned? There was a new release less than a year ago. See https://github.com/pelzlpj/orpie

It's in Debian, I think most people would agree that Debian is a major distro.

Code:

% rmadison orpie -a source
orpie      | 1.5.1-10      | oldoldstable   | source
orpie      | 1.5.2-1       | oldstable      | source
orpie      | 1.5.2-2       | stable         | source
orpie      | 1.6.1-1       | testing        | source
orpie      | 1.6.1-1       | unstable       | source
orpie      | 1.6.1-1       | unstable-debug | source

I had a quick google and think I found the Fedora forum thread you mentioned. For some reason they seem to be trying to use v 1.5 in Fedora. That's probably why the build fails...