To: eraser-update@tolvanen.com
From: sami@tolvanen.com
Subject: The future of Eraser

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ANNOUNCEMENT

In a couple of months, maybe sooner, I will release Eraser v5.3, which
will contain fixes to some minor problems that have been brought to my
attention.

The reason why I am telling you this now, is that it will be the last
release of the program I will make. After that, I will concentrate on
other projects, and will no longer have time to maintain Eraser.

Another reason to stop working on Eraser is that it is one of the few
remaining things still tying me to the Windows operating system, while
I prefer to work on a different platform. [1]

NEW MAINTAINER WANTED

This does not have to be the end of Eraser development. This is free
software, anyone of you can continue working on it. [2]

To be able to take over as the maintainer, you should know the C++
programming language, and have at least some experience working with
the MFC library. You also need to have access to MS Visual C++.

If you are interested in maintaining the program, or participating in
further development, send email to eraser@tolvanen.com. Please take a
look at the source code before making your decision. [3]

PROJECT STATISTICS

There were over 70000 downloads for Eraser last month, and since 1997,
nearly a million copies have been downloaded.

I suspect there are quite a few people using the program, and over 5000
of them have subscribed to this mailing list. Over the past four years,
I have received thousands of emails, and have personally replied to
most of them.

Today, Eraser consists of almost 200 source files, together containing
nearly 50000 lines of code.


  [1] http://www.linux.org/
  [2] http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/free-sw.html
  [3] http://www.tolvanen.com/eraser/source.shtml


    -- Sami

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