Beggars Can't Be Choosers

Tips & Tricks
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Beggars can’t be choosers

Renoise modules are XML formatted text files with samples partitioned in folders, zipped, then renamed to dot XRNS.

On windows, A zip file is what you extract using Winrar. A text file is what you look at in Notepad+. And a folder is what you look at in the file browser. It’s not brain surgery.

One day, I was bored, I looked in the forum, and saw someone wanted a tool to merge xrns files together. I was so bored that I decided to write the thing in PHP, the only programming language I ever bothered to learn, possibly one of the most hated. Not only was I bored, but I was bored and lazy, instead of making something universally understood, I made it a command prompt script because a GUI is too hard. This in turn made it difficult for most users to figure out because said users are even lazier than me as they don’t want to learn how to operate their computers without a GUI. (Unfortunately for them, nothing better came a long so they met me half way and figured it out.) In any case, not only was I bored and lazy, but I was also sloppy. I kept posting unfinished updates in the forums to get feedback to the point where Taktik eventually fixed my code. Skip a head to the XRNS2MIDI script, not only was I bored, lazy, and sloppy, I didn’t even bother to finish the script. Bantai took over and the thing eventually turned into something useable and good.

Moral of the story?

Look at my sig. Look at the XRNS-PHP project. Look at all the cool tools on the tools download page. A bunch of tools happened because people made them happen. Instead of asking for shit for free, try making shit for free. You want a hobby? Try making Renoise tools? You don’t know how, surprise, neither did anyone else until they tried. It will take longer than posting a feature request? Maybe even months longer? Agreed. So what?

The only thing stopping you is you.

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Good read with a moral on top: it pays off to be lazy

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Ah, so somebody will finish my microtuning script for me?

(I’m lazy too)

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That is so true.

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I think the point I was trying to make is, if you get the script to the point of something that proves a concept, and other users are interested in your concept but feel you didn’t go far enough, more people will be willing to add to the pile.

If it turns out the users are happy with the way your script works as is, or they just don’t use it enough to see the need in finishing it, or they don’t use it at all… Well, that’s participatory democracy in action, and the resources were allocated though some sort of Darwinistic mechanism, and no one’s time was wasted, AND everyone learned in the process. I think that’s fantastic.

The original user can continue if they ever feel the itch again. Or maybe several months down the line someone will really need improvements and be forced to try to do something for them.

Or to quote ESR: It’s a bazaar, not a cathedral.