For the greater good of eraser

K

kingkong

New Member
Please post this to any forums / mailing lists that may have an interest in helping out with eraser to save it from extinction.

SNIP------------------
I don't know how many people are familiar with the great windows security tool eraser: http://www.heidi.ie/eraser

Eraser allows you to securely delete files and wipe free space on Windows computers using various user selectable wiping patterns.

From reading the forums ( http://bbs.heidi.ie ) it would appear that the future of Eraser is in jeopardy. Unfortunately since Sami Tolvalen ( http://www.tolvanen.com ) stepped down as project lead the program has gone down hill.

Eraser was taken over by Heidi ( http://www.heidi.ie ) headed by Garrett Trant and quickly went down hill. While fixing some bugs, most releases under Heidi were marred by many bugs, some fatal where you would irreversible destroy your hard drive contents.

A few years later and we get to present day. Heidi seem no longer interested in the project. This leads us to the introduction of Joel ( http://joelsplace.sg/ ), a cocky 16 year old (weren't we all at that age) programmer. While he has quashed several bugs introduced by Heidi, it would appear that he has set his sites on taking over eraser for his own glory. He is quite rude and refuses to see listen to people who try correct his mistakes.

Joel is currently rewriting eraser (badly) in c# ( http://eraser.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/eraser/ ) , apparently learning the language as he goes along. Essentially Joels vision of eraser is bloating it out (requiring c# runtime libs to be installed before you can run eraser - does anyone remebber the fun of vb runtimes on win95?) into his own personal CCleaner ( http://www.ccleaner.com ). Adding features that other programs cover much better and essentially destroying the one thing Eraser does well. It will be a jack of all trades master of none.

The future of eraser under Joel is looking quite grim, he him self even says it is not looking good ( http://bbs.heidi.ie/viewtopic.php?t=4215 )

Eraser is in desperate need of help to keep the project running as well as preventing one singular person taking it in the direction they want.

What can you do:

- Help with improving the pure 5.x branch
- Donate to the project
- Fork the 5.x branch thus preserving the original program in all its glory.
- Go to the forums and register your interest in keeping eraser as simple as possible
- Spread the word that eraser project needs help

SNIP------------------
 
A little harsh. It's unfair to say Joel and Garrett are detrimental to the project, they have both done trojan work in adding support and fixing bugs

I'll applaud your (misguided) effort to try and drum up support.
 
I think it will be appropriate for me to address a few accusations in your post.

kingkong said:
Eraser was taken over by Heidi ( http://www.heidi.ie ) headed by Garrett Trant and quickly went down hill. While fixing some bugs, most releases under Heidi were marred by many bugs, some fatal where you would irreversible destroy your hard drive contents.
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Agreed. But think about it, Heidi is a business ultimately. The fact that he is taking it over and supporting it as a privately financed project should deserve some respect. Fatal bugs, yes. Marred by bugs, yes. But ultimately we all are human and we'll make mistakes, unless you yourself don't make any, I don't think that your statement is fair. You do have a right to criticize, but please bear in mind that we don't get paid and we have other (life-supporting) commitments to fulfil.

kingkong said:
A few years later and we get to present day. Heidi seem no longer interested in the project. This leads us to the introduction of Joel ( http://joelsplace.sg/ ), a cocky 16 year old (weren't we all at that age) programmer.
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Cocky, arrogant, proud, domineering, whatever - Call me anything you like. Label me whatever you feel is fair, just be able to justify it.

kingkong said:
While he has quashed several bugs introduced by Heidi, it would appear that he has set his sites on taking over eraser for his own glory.
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Just because I want to get things done, it doesn't mean I want to take Eraser for my own glory. Even if I did, what motive and benefit will I derive from it? Think about it. So no, I don't want to take it over.

kingkong said:
He is quite rude and refuses to see listen to people who try correct his mistakes.
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Alright, then look at this thread http://bbs.heidi.ie/viewtopic.php?t=3470. Where have people corrected my mistakes? Rude? In the post where a user posted about erasing encrypted files? Please, judge the accusatory tone of the starting post. People who volunteer do not like to have fire shoved up their face by "customers" thinking that the volunteers owe them everything.

http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html. Skip to the Disclaimer of Warranties section (15, 16, 17) and see what it says. Basically, it means that I don't have to fix anything, nor is Heidi obliged to run this forum for interaction with users, but we are doing it anyway at Heidi's cost.

kingkong said:
Joel is currently rewriting eraser (badly) in c# ( http://eraser.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/eraser/ ) , apparently learning the language as he goes along.
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I acknowledge that C# isn't my forte. C++ is. If given a choice I'd happily write it all in C++ and wxWidgets. But Garrett and I have decided that C# is simpler for people to approach us telling us they can help. So if that is what he thinks is good, I'll go with it.

Also please justify what you mean by bad. If you can help write it better, I'd love to get Garrett to give you project member status and I'd happily step down since it can be placed in your good hands.

kingkong said:
Essentially Joels vision of eraser is bloating it out (requiring c# runtime libs to be installed before you can run eraser - does anyone remebber the fun of vb runtimes on win95?) into his own personal CCleaner ( http://www.ccleaner.com ). Adding features that other programs cover much better and essentially destroying the one thing Eraser does well. It will be a jack of all trades master of none.
Click to expand...
You have to install the VC++ runtimes as well even if it is written in C++. The program cleaning parts can be maintained by other individuals. I have said before and I will repeat it here that all I'm doing is to allow Eraser to be extended by others. I am not erasing what Eraser does best now, file and folder and drive erasing.

kingkong said:
The future of eraser under Joel is looking quite grim, he him self even says it is not looking good ( http://bbs.heidi.ie/viewtopic.php?t=4215 )
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Yes. Because no one is going to be working full-time on this, and we all have bread-and-butter issues. I think I should quantify what I mean by a bad future in that Eraser 6 will be released, but not as quickly as what people expect it to be. Also, I am not taking over the branch. This branch was started together with Garrett's approval.

I AM a full-time student. I don't have to volunteer my time to help develop this project but I'm doing it nonetheless!

kingkong said:
What can you do:

- Help with improving the pure 5.x branch
- Donate to the project
- Fork the 5.x branch thus preserving the original program in all its glory.
- Go to the forums and register your interest in keeping eraser as simple as possible
- Spread the word that eraser project needs help
Click to expand...
The 6x branch is a branch, 5x will remain as trunk. Please check your facts!

I hope that what I've said has made known my PoV to what you have claimed in your post.

Joel
 
Hi king kong.

Well, we are all frustrated with slow development or bugs in our favourite software and operating systems etc but please do remember Eraser is FREE !

Had Garrett not taken Eraser over and had Joel not fixed the bugs where do you think Eraser would be now ?

Anyway I hope now that you have said your piece this doesn’t turn into a personal flame war.

Keep it clean and friendly guys. :wink:
 
Joel said:
I acknowledge that C# isn't my forte. C++ is. If given a choice I'd happily write it all in C++ and wxWidgets. But Garrett and I have decided that C# is simpler for people to approach us telling us they can help. So if that is what he thinks is good, I'll go with it.
Click to expand...

Taking this off topic, I'm sure no one will mind. Feel free to split this out into another thread if needed.

Joel, while I admire your efforts in taking on this task, what safe guards are being put in place to ensure secure and safe code for v6 while you are writing in C#. It was my understanding that Garrett / Heidi are bowing out of the project, is there anyone else to give you peer review (that is capable, having source up on SF for people to hopefully review not being ideal).

When you say it isn't your forte, how familiar are you with it, is it a case of learning as you go along or have you other projects in c# but some of the requirements for getting eraser done are new to you.
 
jackjack said:
Joel, while I admire your efforts in taking on this task, what safe guards are being put in place to ensure secure and safe code for v6 while you are writing in C#. It was my understanding that Garrett / Heidi are bowing out of the project, is there anyone else to give you peer review (that is capable, having source up on SF for people to hopefully review not being ideal).
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Source is always publicly available on public SVN at SourceForge. Sami may not be active in the project but I still see him hang around here once in a while, hopefully he can do a peer review if specific requests are made.

jackjack said:
When you say it isn't your forte, how familiar are you with it, is it a case of learning as you go along or have you other projects in c# but some of the requirements for getting eraser done are new to you.
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I've spent a two terms of study doing C# and data in school. I'm new only because I have not done major projects in it. However one must note that C# is extremely close to C++.

I don't know how kingkong got the impression that I am writing it badly. The only logical progression that I can see is that he's taking it as bad because of it being in .NET, and for no other reason. This is because the only code in C# now is not any erasing code, merely user interface code.

Joel
 
Joel said:
Source is always publicly available on public SVN at SourceForge. Sami may not be active in the project but I still see him hang around here once in a while, hopefully he can do a peer review if specific requests are made.
Click to expand...

Sadly the fact that source code for projects is openly available means little in peer review. Those that can tend not to and those that want can't :)

Thanks for clearing that up though. I guess more coders are needed to ensure safe code.

/me goes to find a book on c# ;o)
 
>>Eraser allows you to securely delete files and wipe free space on >>Windows computers using various user selectable wiping patterns.
Eraser still does this nothing has changed.

>>it would appear that the future of Eraser is in jeopardy.
Eraser is a very stable product with a very active support forum. The only reason Eraser would be pushed towards jeopardy is through people who slander it like yourself.

>>some fatal where you would irreversible destroy your hard drive >>contents.
Ok so this must be the core of your rant. As software it cannot physically destroy a hard drive. This has been discussed many times and is due to faulty hardware.

>>Joel: that he has set his sites on taking over eraser for his own glory.
Joel has done a lot for Eraser and supporting the users. He is extremely competent and we have had many mails in support of him. So what if he is putting his name to it, does he not deserve recognition?

>>Joel is currently rewriting eraser (badly) in c#
Right so you are better?If so we would like to see your contributions.

>>apparently learning the language as he goes along.
We all have to start somewhere.

>>Essentially Joels vision of eraser is bloating it out
Is this not what you want?? You want new versions thus new features thus 'bloating' eraser.

>>requiring c# runtime libs to be installed before you can run eraser
.Net runtime is now already on XP and Vista machines. Equally C++ runtimes are already needed by the current eraser.

>>It will be a jack of all trades master of none.
Right, so you want more features but you don't want more features!!
The Eraser features added by Joel cannot be termed with such words. They have been competently programmed and fully tested. I think behind it all you already know this, but just need to have a little rant to yourself.

>>Eraser is in desperate need of help
Eraser is in great shape and you know it.

Garrett
 
Very nicely put Garrett.

Keep up the great work Garrett & Joel!

Sidebar..my Vista 64 still has issue's running Eraser. It seems to install fine but upon running, it shows error, Eraser.dll not found...or on that order...even tho it is in the directory. Im in hopes future releases of this program will work with my machine (I have read other Vista 64's working well)......For now tho Eraser portable is doing its job.
 
UPDATE...

Sense Joels release of Eraser 5.87-beta 1 Feb 29th 08, Eraser (beta) installed and runs succesful on my Vista64!

Great job Joel and Garrett!

So Kingkong...what exactly is Joel, and/or Garrett doing wrong??? All I see is an unpaid guy donating his time (around schooling) and improving a great & neccesary app. Or as Garrett said (basically) if you can do it better...SHOW US!
 
Frustration is a strange thing which can blind

some time ago i myself got quite frustrated about the development of eraser and the fact it stopped working on my system i felt that my pleas for help went unanswered and i became a little caustic shall we say

Then along came overwriter and Joel and whilst myself and joel had a frosty start i must say i have been very grateful to him since.

we are moving in the right direction and my only gripe which i know joel will work out is that i have to turn UAC off which i don't like doing but i know joel will sort.

So All i can say is kingkong i understand what your saying but badmouthing a great app and people who are giving there time for free is not the right way to do it .

so to overwriter "Who i think rocks for support" and Joel whos hard work lets me ise eraser at all

Thank You

Dor :D
 
At first I didn't know what to make of kingkong, the more I think about it...kingkong is just a troll. He made just one post, maybe he was somebody who destroyed their System anyway Joel is doing a fantastic job.
 
As stated by Doreen....

A forum really needs a good moderator...and YES Overwriter is doing a fantastic job!!!!! :D I did not mean to overlook him as I guess this thread was about Garrett & Joel.

But really, a forum isnt that good if a knowledgable person (Overwriter) was not here to help people and maybe nudge Joel to look into a suggestion or issue.

As for Doreen..I understand UAC is a safe guard...but dont you find it annoying... I mean you cant make a move, and your bombarded with basically 'are you sure you want to do this' and 'you really, really sure?' <<<<First step I do when installing Vista is kill the UAC. We all survived without it before and you never know if you will have other hardware failures..I believe in backing up to CD's, Memory keys etc ... but I put more faith in my surfing habits and my AV & Spyware apps.
 
KingKong Flame?

I see that the last reply in this thread was March 1st. Am I too late?

I am new to Eraser (yes the capital is intentional) and have been using 'chaos-shredder' for the last couple of years.

I changed to Eraser because it IS so stable!

So as a newbie I would like to offer my congratulations and thanks to the people who have put time and effort into keeping Eraser going. My hat (and I do have one) is off to you. Keep up the good work. Those of us that can't/don’t...... Are grateful to those that can and DO!


Rod
 
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