This topic contains 51 replies, has 32 voices, and was last updated by 
Mark Sibly
1 year, 6 months ago.
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Great to hear from you Mark, and that sound a bit better than before.
Whilst I might complain about Monkey2. I love it, but I’m a geek and don’t have problems modifying things when I need to.
Monkey2 for me is uber productive. and I really enjoy dev on the mac and then cross compile on win. I’ve not done an linux apart form some Pi stuff a while back.
I would love to help or contribute (my changes) as wanted. So never be afraid to ask or say ‘bugger off’ lol
I concur with Adam, that is great to hear Mark!
I’ve really been digging Monkey2 for a couple of weeks now, the language is great and it just works!
I know I havent added anything to Patreon, but have bought both modules on itch (which should be advertised here too!) so I hope that has helped a tiny bit.
Hope Monkey2 has a long and happy future!
I also like monkey2 (and b3d & bmax) and try to do it better working on IDE.
Earlier I chosen the QT Creator for desktop tools, but this time I prefer monkey2!
And I’m waiting for v1.1.08.
I think mx2 needs a rebranding, new site and forum. Blitz Basic in this regard was better.
Agreed. To many of us Europeans the name Monkey as a language is just a no no.
A rebranding would help a lot, don’t underestimate the power of the first impression when looking at something new, imho. So a professional website with a professional forum software would be a good start. I would even propose to stay with WordPress plus some good forum software. Heck I even would sponsor that and do it, including hosting, forum and so on and would let Mark do what he can do best which is working on MX2.
But oh well, probably not going to happen…
The website really does need wrok… super slow, gloomy, broken in parts. that said, don’t waste your time or money changing that just yet… take a tiny break by following your road map… concentrate on making a game to sell. let that direct changes to monkey2.
at the same time talk more! tell us what you’re doing more often even if it goes no where. your you tube videos need to be better… again, talk… make sure they have sound! tell us what you did and why…. how you got to that part. same with blogs… at least once a month post something. the more you talk (about good things) the more other people talk.
any don’t worry about many of the features you already coded… that’s water under the bridge… look to the future… and again write a game with the purpose to sell it on steam for some cash.. have those requirements dictate your next compiler/environment changes.
you need to engage… for that matter I believe all of life is best when one engages people.
Honestly I have not written a thing with Monkey 2 yet, something about it just feels off, I hate the fact you split the community again that seriously pissed me off, there are so many things I wish you did differently but with all that being said I HOPE! you do not give in because what you did was pull me out of the misery I was in with C, Delphi and VB and gave me a language that just made sense and let me build cool games and for that I will always be thankful.
If you choose to keep going, PLEASE for the love of all that is the Universe and everything in it, ACCEPT FKN HELP, lets face it you couldn’t do a website if it was paint by numbers, let some one else help you with it I would be willing to bet there are still a ton of people who would volunteer their help with it.
Try building a team of volunteers have a guy that deals with the docs, a guy that manages the site and builds web stuff like a better theme, more site options like submitting code, submitting examples to the docs, a show case etc, have a code guy to help with that, have a gui or ide guy(looks at junlge), build a team mark, you might be surprised how many will offer their help seeking nothing in return, people will come and go you had an amazing community and some of it still exists so let it help you.
let the community help stop trying to be rambo.
oh one final thing, and to echo what dmaz just said, MARK one of your biggest mistakes was pulling away from your own community, you used to talk to us, not sure what made you recoil from the forums but your presence was deff missed. and still is I would argue.
I’m with Taiphoz on this one get volunteers on board of course you have the final say BUT it will take the pressures off. Heck even some coders could help wrote modules etc?
One thing I said back when bb2d and b3d was out was “expand the team” it’s too much for one coder to do but a army of volunteers it’s plain sailing
I wonder how many people like me there are that love using Monkey2 but shy away from participating so much? In my case it’s because I have two kids and a full time job; I have to spend my time coding rather than chatting! I’ve actually released an app (Saddlefit Pro in the AppStore and Google Play) using Monkey1, hoping to get a game out with Monkey2 at some point. I’d hate to see it go.
Most of everything here is going great from my perspective.
I’ve built things for Win/Linux/Android way easier than I ever could without Monkey.
All that needs work is the module documentation, specifically the details are really vague.
MX1’s documentation was fantastic! I’m sure way more people will jump on board if they have a more detailed
‘cheat sheet’ so-to-speak.
Maybe add a Learn/Tutorials topic in the forums too?
I think the goal is to make Monkey more approachable for both new programmers and those new to MX2.
Website CSS revamp anyone? The content in the ‘About’ page is amazing though should be extended further.#UsingMX2InTheUSA:)
Oh hello.
I learned of this on Socoder, which is mostly where I lurk these days. I was about to post a reply there, then thought, where’s the sense in that? Mark isn’t likely to see it.
So… here’s [the censored version of] what I was about to post there:
Just been having a read of that thread on the Monkey2 forum… it speaks bloody volumes that there’s probably only 10 or 12 people bothered to comment on it. Back in the day if he’d said “I’m chucking in Blitz3D”, there would have been hundreds of cries of “NOOOOOOOO” within the hour. But the audience seems to have got less and less with each iteration.
Been giving it some thought and, issues of language abandonment aside, Mark is one person. He isn’t the entire Unity development team yet that seems to be what he thinks he’s competing with. I mean… for f***s sake, they employ 1200 people or something? To be of the idea that you can single-handedly create a language that is all things to everybody, is just f*****g ridiculous.
With that in mind, and the fact that most platforms – most notably Android and iOS – are completely bereft of any quality control and consequently a waste of time nowadays, I would ditch the lot and bring my focus back to Windows and Mac. Screw everything else.
Mark – I dunno if you’re reading this still. But maybe you’re at a point where you think perhaps you’ve taken too much on and feeling overwhelmed with what you think is expected of you? I mean… Jesus… one bloke, trying to make a feature-complete development system that’s bug-free on all these platforms (with said platforms like iOS moving the damn goalposts with every update), while things like Unity roll along with thousands of employees… I don’t know, but I know what I’d think if I was in your position. I’d just curl up in a ball in the corner. I can’t speak for anybody else here (well, maybe a few) but I owe my coding life to three people; François Lionet, a guy called Phil Wilkinson who nobody here will have heard of, and you. Even though I’ve moved onto other languages now, I’m still grateful for the tools I was given 25 years ago. Without Amos/Blitzbasic, then who knows? I might have had to *gulp* get a “proper job”. Amos, Blitzbasic, even up to the PC version including Blitz3D and BlitzMax – knew exactly what they were and didn’t try to do any more than that. They did one job, and did it very well.
I’m not sure the number of target platforms for Monkey/Monkey2 are either realistic, or necessary. Is it really what you want for Monkey2?
As above… time to refocus? Because if this is grinding you down then yeah, may as well just hang up the keyboard. I did the same thing two years ago. It all became a chore and I’d had enough of it.
Hi
I’m backing for a few years now (just a few dollars monthly OK) but not using Monkey2 yet since I have to finish a big MX/Cerberus X project first. I don’t have much time to code so I have to focus on finishing things instead of starting exciting new projects but I do intend to use Monkey2 soon. It seems to be fast, fun and stable, what else would I want?
I like Blitz languages, including Monkey 2. I like BlitzMax the most because it was designed for desktop and I have used it in Windows only. Keeping Monkey 2 alive by simply fixing the language and its basic modules, and leaving the time consuming modules to others, is an alternative.
I’ve just moved to monkey2. I’m ashamed to say I can’t afford to pay for it yet, but I intend to this month.
I’ve always bought and used Blitz languages and can echo what others have said about the amount of fun it’s been; it’s hard to overstate. I’ve pretty much zero enthusiasm for going back to the other languages I’ve dabbled in to find anything as easy and powerful.
Having lots of monkey code, I was sad to see it go and I’d be sad to see m2 go as well. I’ve only started to convert my stuff but it looks lovely so far.
Sad though it’d be I don’t have any personal expectations, I feel like I’ve had much more than my money’s worth over the years and most of all I want Mark to find the work sustainable and enjoyable.
ps. I’ll feel like I’ve had my money’s worth even if I pay on Nov 1st and it still folds.
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