All this change in APIs is frustrating isn't it, or . . . .

I have something to say to anyone who is frustrated that they can’t play with building something on SAFE because it’s not ready, it’s too hard, or because with Fleming all the APIs have changed, most have disappeared and none of it is documented.

“Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera” - Yul Brynner

At least twice now we’ve been in this position as first one API emerged (alpha), then was replaced with another (alpha2) and now we’re here again, at the germination of a third for Fleming. Annoying huh? I mean: what was the point of learning alpha, and then alpha 2, and writing thousands of lines of code which won’t work on Fleming or have now been replaced by it? My answer is below :crazy_face:

I get the frustration, and it is hard, and I did moan a bit about that each time - but not any more. This is, for me, literally the best bit of any endeavour and I’m loving it again.

It reminds me of how I felt when I was a boy trying to figure out how to build electronics stuff. You would not believe how long it was before I built a single circuit that worked (about four or five years I reckon) because I had so little understanding or help - just blind persistence (not unlike a Scottish spider). But having persevered, that kicked off something which has helped me ever after.

From a single transistor controlling a light bulb I graduated to an oscillator, then kits, then my own designs, eventually a computer kit, then designed a disk interface and wrote an OS for it. It’s just like climbing a ladder, you start at the worthless first rung that is the hardest to get on. Like a child’s first step - have you watched that? I can see the joy in my baby daughter’s face in that moment.

It’s that joy which makes us reach and succeed, and that’s what I’m loving with Fleming as I get the first pieces to work, and have an app working again.

It’s very hard, but that’s why it rocks. It is also the best way to learn some extremely valuable skills, so if you feel frustrated waiting, realise you can dive in and wrestle to get on that first rung at any time. Myself and others are here to help, so you can always ask - it’s useful to learn when and how to get help - but also that you can always push on alone when you can’t get help, and that is the way to stretch and add to your abilities, which is where you will find the greatest joy in my experience.

The only thing frustrating you is yourself!

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You battle for hours, if not days, with one sentence in Ancient Greek by the comic playwrite Aristophanes. The sentence is several lines long. Having consulted dictionaries and grammar books, you understand every base form and every morphological construction, but you just can’t make sense of the syntax or what he means. Then, the joy! He is calling Socrates a wanker! You giggle for years, telling your friends, but hardly anybody understands what’s so funny.

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I’m sure you’re right, and having just finished reading (a translation of) Plato’s Symposium, I now understand why he enjoyed having a go at Aristophanes. The latter is on my Christmas list, has been for a couple of years but nobody has taken the hint yet.

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Lemme take care of that.

:santa: << Hey you, we want some ancient Greek comedy to make happybeing a wee bit happier and btw, we want SAFE Network too. Thanks!

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You can’t make an omelette without breaking a few eggs. The tasty dish will be worth the wait! :slight_smile:

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Fair point, trying to keep up with this project certainly does lead to some interesting new places and learning.

For those whose time is in very short supply though, would it also be an acceptable tactic to wait until the new NodeJS API is released, which should be fairly soon, and which should be fairly similar to the old one?

I mean that as a serious question, just to check I am understanding the timeline right, and that I haven’t missed something.

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Definitely. There’s not intended to be any ‘should’ or reprimand in my note. My purpose is to explain that where things may seem pointless or too difficult, there can still be valuable benefits to going ahead. It does take time though, so if you can’t find or prioritise that it is sensible to wait until things suit your circumstances and your particular goals. I’m lucky to be able to spend my time on this and enjoy it.

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Thanks Mark,

Just wanted to check because it’s taken me a bit by surprise that people are suddenly using ‘Fleming’ and I was pretty sure the bit I was looking out for hadn’t been released yet!

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The bit I’m using allows me to authorise with the vault, then list and view the folders and files of a website via its SAFE URI. So I have Solid Filemanager working in read-only mode (as shown here on alpha2, but now on Fleming). I can show you what is available so far if you are interested.

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I am interested, just got too many SAFE and non-SAFE things floating round my head at the moment, so maybe better trying to stay focused on where I’m at!

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Will it ever be as easy as pressing a button to build something on SAFE? It must be made easy, otherwise most developers will give up and build on other platforms. Microsoft calls it the F5 experience to have onboard as many developers as possible.

Pressing a button is always just pressing a button. I think we will always have to get as close to pressing as few buttons as possible to make your use case appear in code, but the whole industry wishes for that also.

SAFE is trying to distinguish itself though as a usable platform for building many apps / software tools or whatever we want to call them. It is not easy and a ton of work that is unseen. I think it will pay off so always nag us where you think it could be easier, but as powerful (the painful balance) as it needs to be.

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(source: B. G. Seielstad on Wikimedia Commons)

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