

I'm thinking of open sourcing an old project - paddy_m
http://demo.chartwidget.com

======
paddy_m
I'm going to copy the text that I posted to my blog here. Not sure about all
the etiquette of this.

<http://paddymullen.com/2008/11/19/open-sourcing-chartwidget/>

In 2007 I wrote a javascript charting package named <a
href="http:/demo.chartwidget.com">chartWidget</a>. I intended to pursue
business opportunities with it, that didn’t work out (another post).

Take a look at the site. You can view the javascript source, but it is
obfuscated, I modified the YUI Compressor to munge global variables somewhat
safely.

Anyway, I think I wrote some pretty cool code. I’m not currently doing
anything with it, and many friends have recommended that I open source it. So
I am thinking about it.

I have some questions

1\. Which license to choose? I’m leaning towards GPL, because it is still a
bit hard to let go. Which license puts me in the best position should someone
want to use it (for me to possibly receive consulting fees)?

2.Should I include my whole subversion repository, about 700 revisions, I’m
worried to do this, because it quite likely includes passwords ( I know bad
practice)? On the plus side including the whole repository could show thought
patterns, to help other people debug the code

3.Will anyone care? I guess I can find out by doing it.

4\. My code is idiomatic to say the least, in some places wrong, and in many
more places just hard to understand. How much will this matter for me, if
someone looks at the code will they consider me an idiot?

5.What questions am I not asking that I should be?

* editted to remove p tags

~~~
lnguyen
1\. The license you choose probably won't make anyone more inclined to hire
you for consulting. You're better off trying to decide how open you want code
and contributions to remain.

2\. While a revision history is nice to have available, odds are most people
aren't going to really look back at older versions of the code. Some code
cleanup and documentation would be preferable (but does require your setting
aside time to do that).

3\. You'll never know until you do. And it doesn't cost you anything to do it.
(With some exceptions... see #5)

4\. You're not claiming its perfect so don't stress too much about it. Part of
what open source is about is allowing someone to see what makes everything
tick, warts and all. Because someone could always contribute back fixes.

5\. Have you thought about where you're going to make your code available
(Sourceforge, GitHub, etc.)? Is there going to be a Google Group or something
so people can ask questions or share their experiences with the code? Even if
you're not expecting a massive wave of adoption, having some of that in place
can make everything better (both for people interested in your code and
yourself).

~~~
paddy_m
I would probably do a Google Code/Google Group

------
shaunxcode
I clicked on the link and from the description thought "big deal" but checked
out the demo anyway and actually that is really slick! definitely something
that could be built upon or componetized for other projects!

~~~
paddy_m
Thanks

------
shib
GPL is hostile to commercial uses. Offering GPL only would restrict the use of
your code to inhouse development and personal projects.

You could ALSO offer a "commercial" licence. That would give users the right
distribute your code with their closed-source commercial code.

The dual licence approach means that users that aren't making money off your
code don't have to pay, and those that are do.

On the repository point: I'd suggest putting the current code onto something
like Google Code. If you're not moving the code forward and no one else can
fix bugs or make improvements, then the project is basically dead.

~~~
Herring
Slight correction: hostile to _proprietary_ usage. Lots of people are making
money using GPL

