Release the source code for Clickteam extensions?

Hi clickteam and all clickers! Snail the Unity and Unreal Engine before 4 version with UDK isn't full open source products, from your list only Construct Classic and GDevelop is open source product and this is only for parts of programs not for all components!

Having full text alteration (especially alignment) in edit and lists would be so nice. Also, adding word, sentence, etc., markers to Rich Text would make my life so much easier!

I went and got a development key and I have to say this program could only improve should you open source more or all of your plugins. Just because its open sourced doesn't mean you can't just develop your own official branch on the side. I have to agree with Snail on this one, I have watched much if not all of his tutorial videos and they have been a great help to me in trying to understand clickteam and how important fully functional plugins and objects are. I don't see a reason in not allowing developers to get source code access to official plugins they can release unofficially with a clear warning:

1. The official plugins are viewable/installable within Clickteam itself.

2. The unofficial ones can only be gotten from the forums. or through an "Unofficial Plugins" listing in the manager. Each made unique with the name of the creator Infront of them.

[FanDev] Array Plugin
[FanDev2]Array Plugin

etc

3. Would keep the program's older versions from dying off should old versions begin to lose support and because of this it may make users trust Clickteam more and invest in newer versions which may mean greater sales and usage. I mean Clickteam dev isn't cheap, people that want to use it have specific things in mind and the more options for what plugins to use or modify the better. Especially for those who have payed for it but still lack options that never come.

Starting from scratch for a specific plugin when all you want to do is improve whats already there is illogical.
Especially when there may be many of them, I don't see how it would hurt Clickteam at all. Open sourcing things like extensions would only make it more popular to use as devs would share their improvements and allow everyone to make better products.

Besides all of this, when you open source your extensions that you already sell with the program you still retain all rights, its just now people can modify it for use within their products with their licenses nothing changes, if you want to manage it better just force people to look for the extensions on your forum and in the terms of use/modification add a rule for appending all end-user modifications with the name of the user to differentiate the versions. [UserClickTeam1]Array Plugin, or even call them something else and also have a rule for stating that clickteam is the owner of the original while they are at it, to make sure people know and also make them provide their source aswell. Thats what open source is about, you give and you get. And then you can also have something there for picking and choosing leaving you with the option to collect what is basically free work from devs/users who wish to contribute unofficially with features for extensions you may wish to add yourselves.

I hope Clickteam considers the future of this great program, its really lightweight and doesn't have a ton of nasty EULA to bog it down, by the way it is strange you cannot distribute extensions improved using ANDROID SDK Seeing how android is open source?

NoShedTearMore, I see this is your first post, so welcome to the forums! I do agree with what you're saying, the only real danger of releasing unofficial extensions is if someone tries to distribute something malicious. If a clicker whose a non-programmer downloads it and doesn't realise it's dangerous/infected, it might deface and ruin the Fusion brand as a whole (Just like the poor quality games that were on Microsoft's XNA that led them to discontinuing it). I can't see that happening with this supportive community, but you never know...

Quote from NoShedTearMore

by the way it is strange you cannot distribute extensions improved using ANDROID SDK Seeing how android is open source

To this, wouldn't writing and distributing a patch on the forums be okay with this? It's not exactly redistributing the source code entirely, but more the changes/new code added? The other issue with this is when a new build comes out and overwrites the old files, those changes will need to be re-applied. Because of this, open source would seem a better approach for Fusion 3.

Quote from Simon

Just my personal view here, but allowing official Clickteam extensions to be altered and put out there to the public sounds like a support nightmare. No matter how clearly you point out that it is non-official, people will not read or heed these warnings and would come to us with complaints and bug reports and so on. This already happens for 3rd party extensions so I'm almost certain it'd be worse in this scenario…

Respectfully, I think your personal opinion is wrong. If you open source at least a subset of the official extensions, others will fork them for the purpose of submitting pull requests to improve them, and you can choose which pull requests to accept. No one wants a zillion forks of the official extensions and putting them out there certainly isn't going to make that happen.

I also 100% agree with Snail

Just shedding a bit of light on this topic again.

I keep reading a lot of unhappy users who have waited patiently for the Google Play Game Services integration, but are disappointed due to the extension developer being away for long periods of time with no clear return.
Please login to see this link.

I think this is a brilliant example of how open sourcing extensions and developing them in the open would have actually avoided this situation.

• Multiple developers could work on the new extension at the same time on different features (speeding up its development)
• Someone could have forked the existing work and release what's finished, and strip out the WIP parts, until the maintainer returns.
• It would grant freedom to modify it later if Google makes drastic changes - more eyes on the code.

I definitely agree Snail - Your last point would set a role model that open source can lead innovation and speed up developments, with the right minds. I'll be over the moon if Fusion 3 adapts this from the start. X)

• Amateur coders can learn and study how and why their creations work -- (Also great for education)
• Advanced programmers can modify it to their heart's content -- (Less of the monstrous SDK...)
• Generous hearts donate money, there is no reason to believe it's for gratis.

I never liked the idea on "selling" extensions on the ClickStore either. That felt like a step backwards towards that freedom.

This all sounds great for the power users, but as someone who doesn't code and doesn't want to be at the mercy of a community of tinkerers, how does the normal user like me get to use these modified extensions? I don't want to have to deal with GitHub or waste hard drive space with the source branches. I just want to use the modified extensions. Would you suggest there be a place (like a forum) where people would post the updated builds of the extensions? Also, I am not a fan of selling extensions either. If the people working on these branches feel like their work is worth compensation, then they are undermining the fact that people paid for CF2.5 and it's basic components. If they are being improved or fixed, that is seen as an update, not a 3rd party work, especially if it is eventually reintegrated into the official product.