SPECIAL MEETING: Q&A with Kevin Miller, Sept 12

[FourthWorld]

One of our members had offered to video tape the event, but he had something come up at the last minute so we were unable to record it.

We had 22 people in all, a good showing for a regional user group (certainly our largest yet).

Most of the questions were about the topics we devs have been asking about in other venues in recent months: new feature development, open source logistics (both technical and licensing), and tips for success in the software biz.

We kept offering to buy Kevin drinks, and while he enjoyed a couple his answers remained professional, thorough, and enlighteningly detailed throughout the evening. Next time we'll have to up the ante from 12-year old Scotch to 18-year.

After such a whirlwind tour through the States, Kevin was remarkably energetic and enthusiastic. Not surprising, I guess; RunRev seems to be a very personal passion of his, this mission of delivering an uncommonly accessible type of programming to the world.

One of the things that always impresses me about Kevin is how willing he is to dive into the details of something once it's brought to his attention. For example, one of our regulars, Dan Friedman, has an app with some scrolling performance issues. Kevin took a keen interest in it, very insistent that getting great performance with the default settings in the mobile engine should be trivially easy, and set up a plan for Dan to submit a bug report so the engine could be better optimized.

Kevin even took a snapshot of my Ubuntu screen to follow up on a relatively minor issue in the rendering of menu highlights in that OS.

And on and on like that throughout the night - they even kept the restaurant open a little late to accommodate us.

Everyone had a great time, and we all walked away from the event having learned something and feeling good about the direction LiveCode's going.

[Simon]

Hello Jacque,
You are in luck! Immediately after the meeting I sat down to document the event as accurately as I could to retain some of the information. I must apologize in advance as I did not catch most of the names of the people asking the questions, they will be represented by the "@" symbol below.
Further, there were some interruptions and sideline discussions that I was unable to document.

If anyone would care to update this document for correction and additions or chronology please feel free.

19:10 PST Richard Gaskin calls the meeting to order. He commences the meeting with a general Welcome to all the attendees with special reference to Kevin Miller (Editors note: from now on will be referenced as Kevin) and opens the floor to questions.

Kevin: Hello

@: With the LiveCode name will RunRev disappear?
Kevin: No, RunRev remains and is the name of the corporation with LiveCode as it's product.

@: LiveCode isn't really opensource is it? I mean...
Kevin: Excuse me just a moment. I'll have a scotch. I apologize, please continue.
@: Well LiveCode isn't opensource like with Ubuntu I can change it how I like.
Kevin: No, LiveCode is opensource and you are allowed to fork off of git any time you like. RunRev is the custodian of the product LiveCode, we do retain control of that product.

BFF: Could you tell me about the copyright for the Engine contributors?
Richard: Let me introduce a friend of mine (Editors note: I miss this name as well and from now on he will be referred to as BFF). He was the one who introduce me to Linux about 12 years ago, I said "what is this opensource stuff? it will never fly".
Kevin: We are using GPL 3, we did look into using GPL 2 but found 3 puts a finer point on it. They are very similar to each other.
BFF: That's good, so the author can...

Ann: Can I get you something to drink?
Simon: I'll have a beer.
Ann: On tap we have
Samuel Adams
Hefferwisen
Der Spiegel
Mein Hund hat keine Nase

BFF: ... in perpetuity...

Simon: I'll have a Bud please.
Ann: And for you?
Todd: Can I see the breakfast menu?
Ann: Sure.

Kevin: Yes.

BFF: So the IP can cross pollinate across the various business units allowing for ... something something something. Adjusted to leverage the incoming fiscal percentage?
Kevin: Yes

Richard: I've been speaking with Richard Herz about secureMode and...
Simon:Oh! Oh! secureFolder Yes,yes, tell him tell him.
Richard: ...about providing a secureFolder in combination with secureMode...

Kevin: I'll have the steak without the fries or coleslaw, can I get vegetables instead?
Ann: Yes.
Kevin: Great! Lots of them please. And another one of these if you don't mind.

Paul's friend: I'll have the Caesar salad.
Ann: Large or small?
Paul's friend: Just regular I guess.
Paul: I'll have the same
Simon: I'll have the shrimp and another Bud please.
Todd: I'll have 3 eggs scrambled with sausage and can I get wheat toast?
Ann: Sure.

@: With the successes of the kickstarter campaign can you advise someone on starting their own?
Kevin: We didn't take going opensource lightly, we spent about 6 months with the Board in taking the code open...
Ach Lassy, you wouldn't mind getting me a wee drop more...

Richard: Let's take a little break now from the questions to give Kevin some time to eat his dinner.

Editors note: At this point the meeting broke into smaller groups and many of the conversation I did not hear.

Simon: I think Elanor is hot, is she available?
Kevin: -----

Ann: Another?
Simon: Sure.

@: Something something something kickstarter something?
Kevin: Yes.

Kevin: Ach! no one man of Khyber Pass grew a thirst as great as I. A wee dram would no go amiss, to keep me kilt.

Richard: As some of us are leaving now can we all get together for a photo?
@: Can you take one with my camera as well?
Richard: Why don't you take a photo so that I can be in it?
@: Ah yes, I see. OK that's a good plan
Richard: Good.
@: But then we wont have a photo with both of us in it?
Richard: Well I could take a photo of you and hold it up while you take a photo of the group.
@: OK

End of metling 22:54 PST

Simon

[jacque]

Sounds like every single user group meeting I ever went to.