Here’s a thought: why should I expend so much effort in an attempt to make my work available to the world? I’ve spent years trying to make commercially viable designs, and I have entirely failed in this effort. Trying to design for commercial success has cost me vast amounts of time that could have been better spent on design excellence. Here I am engaging in yet another in an endless sequence of transitions to new technologies so as to please people. Why do I fritter away my life screwing around with technology instead of concentrating on my strength: design. As a programmer, I’m a mouse; as a designer, I’m T. Rex. So why spend my time playing the role of mouse?
I already have the tools I need to build great designs. I can build Java programs that I can run on my Mac. I can post the .jars on my website; if somebody wants to see my work, they can download it and figure out for themselves how to get it running.
But will I be writing in sand? How long will it be before my designs can no longer be run? Java itself has an assured future, but will it still be possible to run .jars as standalone programs on Macs and Windows machines? That’s a sobering question.
One big advantage of cutting free from the bonds of entertainment and soaring into the thin air of art is that I need not concern myself with what other people want. I’ve always done my best work when I tell myself, “To hell with the world.”