Special Thanks!!

[Harbinger]

As i've been writing the Offline Help Manual and have had the chance to read and understand the source code and how the program works, some glaring observations have inspired me. I would like to thank some special personalities in this forum. These contributors to the workings of MPT will one day all be called our (we ModPlug trackers') forefathers of Lapicque's brainchild.

1. Relabsoluness: He may not be into this task as much as he used to be, but his thumbprint is present throughout the code and the application. He is responsible for developing the use of MIDI with MPT; beginning the move towards Compatibility corrections; introducing MPT's own file format .mptm, which would allow devs to add savable features in the present and future; and developing the ability to use and apply MPT's internal tuning functions.

2. Rewbs: He comes and goes like a snowbird from Ontario to Florida, but let us never forget: he was primarily instrumental in bringing the use of plugins to MPT. If you look throughout the sourcecode, you'll see that, besides his many minor fixes and features, his additions to the plugin features as well as the ability to customize your own keyboard shortcuts is usable throughout the application. These two features alone bump up MPT's usability from second-rate to first-rate. As a matter of fact, for me, these two features set the benchmark for any new tracking software or plugins that come along and ask for my attention.

3. Jojo: Our current "full-time" dev has singlehandedly introduced new features that by themselves are small, but taken as a whole, they bring this old piece of software into the 21st century. In case you've forgotten (or haven't been here long enough to know), he has given us Parameter Control Events (by far the EASIEST way to control plugins), Sequences (multiple order lists, making it easy to compose several songs with one set of instruments and plugins, or divide up one song into several sections to make it easier to compose by themes), audio rendering by channel or instrument, a multitude of loaders for different track formats, and COUNTLESS bug fixes. With Jojo, you always get the sense he's on the cusp of something brilliant, whether it's a Feature Request he wants to make real, or an invention in code that makes it so much easier to use ModPlug.

If you look through history.txt in your OpenMPT installation, you can see several contributors to the sourcecode, but the footprints left by these 3 are the deepest and most prevalent. I can see this application being used for another 20 years, even as its programming protocol evolves and more not-so-free trackers become open-source in the future. There are no illusions here: MPT is not perfect. But its simplicity makes it easier for us veteran composers to assemble our ideas as quickly and efficiently as possible, while making it intuitive for new composers of ALL kinds of music to begin to learn the technique and skill of composition and music practice. And because it's open-source, it can always be made better; the lack of hardcore license restriction and profit motive leaves the door open for anyone with programming and musical skills to make a positive contribution to this already great application.

But i save the last thanks for the deepest and most heartfelt:

4. LPChip: Without his support, one could argue this software would be buried in sourceforge without a lifeline. He has given a lot of time, attention, and expense to give MPT its own spotlight and pedestal. And even if he's not composing as much as he used to, he still sees the good in propping up the website and even expanding it if possible. He RARELY asks for monetary support and he has made a concerted effort to keep advertising to a minimum. The website is simple but most importantly safe. It's one of the few non-corporate sites i FULLY trust.  Myself, i've gotten so much music assembled and created with this old application and i've even taught someone else the art of tracking with it. There is a lot of good music coming from MPT, and because it has its own public website and a virtual round table of devs that continues to see its unrealized potential, for that we thank you, LP! :wink:

[Saga Musix]

he has given us Parameter Control Events (by far the EASIEST way to control plugins), Sequences (multiple order lists, making it easy to compose several songs with one set of instruments and plugins, or divide up one song into several sections to make it easier to compose by themes)

I'm afraid ( ) all of that has been done by Relabs. I probably just made those features a little bit more useable than they were in their original state.

Also, AFAIK the current website has been built (or is at least run) by MisterX.
I have my mixed feelings towards the previous five years of web development concerning OpenMPT, and it could already be somewhere completely else after this time, but I don't think this is the right place to share those feelings. Expect something big to happen in the near future, though. And this time, it's for real.

[Harbinger]

Well, i probably should say he "perfected" those features! Fair enough?

I coulda sworn LPChip handled the website. If MisterX created it, he deserves thanks to, but i'm sure what his role in all this is?

What IS the history of the site, LP?

[Relabsoluness]

he has given us Parameter Control Events (by far the EASIEST way to control plugins), Sequences (multiple order lists, making it easy to compose several songs with one set of instruments and plugins, or divide up one song into several sections to make it easier to compose by themes)

I'm afraid ( ) all of that has been done by Relabs. I probably just made those features a little bit more useable than they were in their original state.

Yes, it's good to be afraid of my (buggy) codes
And I could well say it's more than "little bit" what you did with the usability.

[Saga Musix]

Yes, it's good to be afraid of my (buggy) codes

I still outnumber you when it comes to the amount of bugs introduced, though. :lol:

[Relabsoluness]

Yes, it's good to be afraid of my (buggy) codes

I still outnumber you when it comes to the amount of bugs introduced, though. :lol:

I doubt that.

[Rakib]

So Harbinger, how is your c++ doing now?
Will we see some contributions to the code soon?

[LPChip]

MisterX created www.modplug.com

Somewhere in 2002 I took over in the sense that I've taken responsibility to keep the modplug website up and running, and try to keep this community to be a good one.

When modplug experienced a crash in 2003, I've installed phpBB on my own server, made a theme for it and made sure we could continue there.

In Oct 2005 we went for a new phpBB install, and it was then when I started to think about getting a complete system up and running. I've actually worked quite a lot on this system, but I ran in many problems which eventually lead me without inspiration and motivation to keep the development up. I even teamed up with ResidentGrey to get more work done, but unfortunately that never got enough result to actually get somewhere. It turned out to be one of those projects where planning and thinking about it, got in the way of just doing it. Those who have tried to make a game probably knows the phenomena: I've tried to make an RPG but never finished it. Seems to happen to every gamedeveloper. (Nifflas made a very nice comment on this in a presentation he gave. I can link this up if people are interested)

Next to that, I've also started an IRC channel. First on EFNet, but it was tricky, so we went to Espernet where I registered the channels #modplug and #openmpt.

So basically, I'm responsible for the forum and IRC Channel. But I also coordinate with the developers when I feel that there's no activity anymore. When Rewbs was still the lead developer, I've had an occassional chat with him to talk about possibilities etc. In the past, I also walked through the bug reports and looked which reports didn't had any feedback to try and minimize the load. I stopped doing this though, because the activity with OpenMPT currently is very good, and Jojo also looks at the bugs.

[uncloned]

modplug.com was made by misterx in the late 90's

see

http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://modplug.com

and modplug was hosted by MrX's CastleX

when Saurin tried to monetize traxinspace modplug became a rallying point for the portion of the module music community that was shocked at Saurin trying to make money from the music they made for free. (Also usenet and a few other sites were havens)

At that time traxinspace was a huge site with regard to the entire internet and cost Saurin a lot of money to run. There was an interview posted where Saurin said he sunk a million of his own and investor dollars into traxinspace. But at the time no one knew this. Since America accessed the internet on POTS dial up modules were king due to the small bandwidth and high quality.

One direct result of this monetization attempt was MrX allowing uploads to modplug.

During this time the module community was large and vibrant.

I dropped out of the scene around 2001 in case someone wants to follow up this story.

I do know shortly thereafter traxinspace collapsed and modplug went on because I hosted a personal site with MrX for some 5 years after that.

[Saga Musix]

I stopped doing this though, because the activity with OpenMPT currently is very good, and Jojo also looks at the bugs.

Yeah, in German you'd call that "TEAMwork" (where "TEAM" stands for "Toll, Ein Anderer Macht's" - "Great, someone else does it")...

[LPChip]

I stopped doing this though, because the activity with OpenMPT currently is very good, and Jojo also looks at the bugs.

Yeah, in German you'd call that "TEAMwork" (where "TEAM" stands for "Toll, Ein Anderer Macht's" - "Great, someone else does it")...

I honestly thought you found it annoying if I did it.

[KrazyKatz]

+1. Many thanks Relabsoluness, Jojo, Rewbs, LPchip, Mr X and let's not forget Olivier Lapique.
If I were rich, I would buy send you all on holiday with a cool beer. But since I'm not my thanks will have to do.

[residentgrey]

ON the website stuff, a friend of mine is reworking a framework that will be damn useful in updating the website to what was planned long ago. I am still involved when I can, it's just that with the car accident and all the other life things that happened this past year, it's been difficult to get some real work done. That combined with LP's job requirements resulted in a major hiatus.

If need be, in the near future I should have some better server space set up. At the very least a decent dedicated server somewhere, where I can have more control of available services.

On the program itself. I can't recall any time in the history of mpt where so many things have been done to the program, even considering <1.16. The dev's have done a great many things to it. Now that I have a windows machine again, I do plan on playing with the progam anew.

[Harbinger]

So Harbinger, how is your c++ doing now?
Will we see some contributions to the code soon?

That car has run out of gas and i've left it on the side of the road.

I've tried everything i could to get VS2008 Express to work with MPT's code and it just fails, even when i build it "right out of the box". So...the car's still driveable, but i have no gas money!! :lol:

[Relabsoluness]

I've tried everything i could to get VS2008 Express to work with MPT's code and it just fails, even when i build it "right out of the box". So...the car's still driveable, but i have no gas money!! :lol:

Yet again to make this clear: there is not a single verifiable report that anyone would have been able to build OpenMPT with plain VC++2008 express while there are numerous good reasons why it's safe to say that OpenMPT can't be build with VC++2008 express.