HMGforum.com

There is so much people new to HMG here, so, it's very probable that they don't know the whole story.

Not understanding the whole story could lead them to not understand the present, so I'll talk about that on the third (and last) part of this document.

I've started HMG in late 2001 and published the first version on February 2002.

HMG ('MiniGUI' at that time) grown quickly.

I've created English and Spanish language forums at Yahoo. There was a Portuguese Yahoo forum too. By 2004-2005 the total subscribers on these forums was about 2000.

Along those years, some people attempted to take the control of the project, trying to turn it in different things.

Some wanted a FiveWin clone, others a strict OOP design and others a more low-level oriented development tool.

Some others were interested on obligate me to left Harbour compiler and change it by other 'product'.

Some of that people, started some kind of 'activism' on the forums to reach a consensus to achieve their goals.

By that time, I had some extremely serious personal problems that kept me away from the forums by some time, getting the things worse.

When returned, I was aware that a new library version was published without my consent, including (mostly) code contributions that I've rejected because different reasons (backwards incompatibilities, inconsistency with general library design, poor code quality, etc.).

The last minigui release at that time was the 106a. The new library version published was 107, with the alleged intention to indicate a continuation of the project.

Given all this and after thinking by some time, I've decided to AVOID CONFRONTATIONS and to RESPECT THE RIGHT OF THOSE WANTING A NEW DIRECTION IN THE PROJECT, CREATING THEIR OWN MINIGUI LIBRARY VERSION.

So, I gave my administrative English forum password to one of the responsible of the publication, RETIRED MYSELF from the public activity and STARTED AGAIN, giving to my project a NEW NAME, to AVOID COMPETITION and/or COMPARISONS, with the intention to keep the things in PEACE.

I've CONTINUED my work with the new name (HMG) and I've NEVER TALKED ABOUT THESE FACTS ANYMORE.

Sadly, minigui ext. team, decided to use the new name (HMG) too to define their project as 'HMG EXTENDED' in some occasions and creating the 'diff' document that started this response, defining their project as an allegedly superior version of HMG.

They even (almost) 'borrowed' the following statement from xHarbour:

"Harbour MiniGUI Extended is a fork up from Official HMG <...> It aims to follow a more aggressive development path, and be more responsive to user's input."

Three years later (in 2008) Rathinagiri invited to me to this new forum and I've decided that could be a good time to restart my public activity again.

As I've said in other posts, I'm very proud of that we achieved here. HMG FORUM is now a nice, fast-growing family with people from all around the world (some of them minigui ext. users) coexisting here PEACEFULLY and in a COLLABORATIVE SPIRIT.

Sadly, some time ago, a member of the minigui ext. team, started here what (IMHO) appears to be a comparison/advertising campaign, spreading sometimes what IMHO is MISLEADING INFORMATION about the differences between both projects.

As I've stated previously, I sincerely hope that this 'campaign' ENDS and that we can CONTINUE WORKING IN PEACE here.

To all people that can help us to achieve that: THANKS IN ADVANCE.

Roberto Lopez wrote: ...
By 2004-2005 the total subscribers on these forums was about 2000.
...

Hi Maestro

I was one of them. My first mail to Yahoo group dated at : Fri Apr 23, 2004 11:48 pm and begun so :

Saludos to the crew and passengers !

Since Autumn'86 i am waiting for clippering in graphical way.

Gracias muços to Roberto Lopez, the great programer and the great teacher !

Viva HMG !

Happy sailing in clipper with HMG ...

Since six year no any difference been in my view, I'm your FANATIC

So, in my point of view any consideration out of REAL HMG is meaningless.

With my best regards

--

Esgici

This is the brief history of HMG narrated by the creator of the library.

Thanks Roberto.

I feel even now how I had got really excited on seeing your HMG 2.0 version. Your choice of the compiler, usage of a single public array system variable for all the internal/low level info, standard approach (like in print module), novel approach in in-place edit, IDE, keeping the library simple and stable, everything is great and fascinating.

I am so happy and proud that we have a group of like minded people here who use HMG extensively and contribute their generic code for all. With HMG, we always have a WIN-WIN situation.

Hello Roberto,

Thanks a lot for your comments and a brief HMG history.

I see your motivation more deeply now.

I respect you as HMG Founder very much!

I'm sorry if I offend you by "misleading information" about HMG

Please accept my sincere excuses...

Thanks Esgici.

Here is my first post in yahoo group on 4th October, 2002. At that time, it was 0.40 version.

Dear Roberto,

It is wonderful to use your Harbour Minigui Library, an open
source library for Harbour.

Thank you verymuch for your sincere efforts.

....

Thank you once again.

srgiri

Hello Roberto,

Thanks a lot
I didn't know the history of HMG. I am always with you. Once you said, "Never abandon your dream". I am repeating the same thing here.

With best regards.

Sudip

gfilatov wrote:Hello Roberto,

Thanks a lot for your comments and a brief HMG history.

I see your motivation more deeply now.

I respect you as HMG Founder very much!

I'm sorry if I offend you by "misleading information" about HMG

Please accept my sincere excuses...

SPANISH:
Grigory, me dá mucha satisfacción leer estas palabras tuyas, con esto demuestras tu humildad y calmas las aguas.

Mis felicitaciones!

ENGLISH:
Grigory, I am very pleased to read these words of yours, with this show your humility and calm waters.

My Congratulations!

Hola a todos,
Tiene razón Fernando y comparto sus palabras.
Parece que el cambio de foto no fue bueno... se cayó el foro y ahora esta discusión ....
Bueno, ahora que se calmaron las aguas, a darse las manos y seguir trabajando como siempre.
Saludos cordiales,
Luis Vasquez.

Hello everyone,
Fernando is right and I share his words.
It seems that the change was not a good picture ... fell off the discussion forum and now this ....
Well, now that calmed the waters, to shake hands and continue working as usual.
Best regards,
Luis Vasquez.

gfilatov wrote:Please accept my sincere excuses...

Apology accepted.

Dear All:

Please allow me to express my feelings for HMG:

It was not long time while one fine morning googling for an alternative for Clipper I came across about xHarbour – visited its site and the Google group: I was amazed & excited to discover this “new” world for clipper programmers. I was aware of xBase++ but not about xHarbour. I started participating in the xHarbour Google group with lot of excitement. And I got in touch with Sudip after many years through this forum.

In that group heard about HMG as GUI library and Sudip encouraged me to give it a try. I felt the same excitement when googled for HMG and came across the following link:

http://sites.google.com/site/harbourminigui/

I said to myself, yes this man (Roberto Lopez) is saying exactly what I too believe in. I was 100% convinced and got motivated with the content of that site. And with Sudip’s initiative started with HMG. As the days go by, I got the chance to taste other variants & alternatives of HMG. I shouldn’t comment on other variants & alternatives of HMG as I’ve not used them much. But I remained stick to HMG for its ideology. I have always believed that to make customized software or an application is an easy job compared to a box-packed software/application with a generic approach for all kind of users’ base. The other variants are trying to put in every request (of features, functions) and thus there exists the chance of overdone of customization. We should understand our software/library can’t make everyone happy or 100% satisfied. Yes sometimes we do become “greedy” and to attain “quick solutions” try to resolve the issue by adding/altering a feature without giving serious thought of its repercussions.

And here I like the approach of the original developer of HMG – Roberto Lopez: he doesn’t fall prey to every requests or gimmick voiced by users like me.
He considers of incorporating new features on a generic way. And this helps HMG to maintain its health, and not put on much “weight” or gain “cholesterol” by consuming “fast foods” (gimmicks, new features) which will be ultimately not good for us in a long run. Moreover too many masters or leaders in a team may sometime lead the team to a lackluster performance.

Open Source has this issue – if a talented group of developers are not convinced with the main ideology or work culture of the on going project, opens another outlet in the web and starts with a new variant of the same product. For companies like Microsoft its good – Divide & Rule!

Friends its time to unite and go ahead, I will remain stick to HMG and this forum but at the same time my best wishes to other variants and alternatives as I believe all have the common objective to give a good development platform to us so that we most of whom have come from the Clipper roots can develop applications at par with the current international standards and features.

Thanks for the patience & time given in reading my feelings.