-
Q. Why version 0.5?
A. Version 0.5 is the release number that has been applied to the first publicly available
release. There is still much that can be done, but the project may be considered 'useful' as is.
Releasing this early also gives the opportunity, for those who might be interested, to suggest
functionality and provide feedback for future
development.
-
Q. Why write SubTrack?
A. A software developer wanted a project in order to try out some technologies e.g Hibernate. A
writer had a problem: for each story, to find the best next market that was a) currently open to
submissions and b) not already considering another story. It seemed an interesting problem (and
turned out to be far more complex than originally envisaged). The resultant software was later
submitted as a project to SourceForge to make it available to others.
-
Q. What licenses apply to SubTrack?
A. The source code written for SubTrack uses the GNU GPL. Other licenses applicable are the GNU
LGPL and the Calendar add-in uses a fairly 'open' license from Tigra.
-
Q. What are the requirements to run SubTrack?
A. The installation requirements are on the installation page. This
requires MySQL and Java, so in theory it should run on any system that can run Java (5.0) and
MySQL. This includes, but is not limited to, Windows, Mac OS and Linux. But I have not tried it
on all of these. The project was initially developed on a PC with an AMD Athlon XP 2200+ and
256MB
of RAM.
SubTrack is a web-based application, so it's used with a web browser, once installed on a
machine it can be used from any machine on the same network that has a browser. It has been
tried with Mozilla, Firefox (version 1.5) and IE (version 6.0 SP1, was an earlier
version but there is javascript problem in 5.0, everything still works but you get an error
message ).
-
Q. Why isn't there a setup.exe/MSI package to install SubTrack?
A. Most of the current installation is straightforward. Downloading the packages and installing
with default settings should be fine in most cases, and copying and renaming files should be
familiar to most computer users. Many people need a simpler installation method, and one
is planned for a future release, at least for Windows (see Roadmap). Any questions should be posted to the Mailing
List.
-
Q. Why is the software only available for download from SourceForge?
A. SubTrack is 'Free'/Open Source Software. SourceForge provides many free services for Open
Source development, including mailing lists and source code repositories etc. At the moment,
SourceForge is the most logical place for hosting. For the differences between Free
Software, other Open Source Software and other 'Freeware' please read
'Categories of Free and Non-Free
Software'.
-
Q. I would like to try SubTrack but am put off by the complexity of installation
A. Please join the Mailing
List. This is the best way to find out about changes to the installation process as soon as
they are available. This is also the best place to ask any questions should you try to install
using current methods.
