Looking for a simple import tool from excel without requiring MS excel to be installed (I use Apache) that can read rows and columns. I can find none for R6.
Its not clear what tools work with V6. Many seem to be abandoned projects with comments requesting R6/R7 compatibility and no response.
Ideally, results could be filtered by Rhino version.
Obviously these are free tools and are as is, but at some point, it becomes a significant investment of time to install and test 4 versions of a tool, none of which explicitly state compatibility with R6 let alone R7
e.g. No 6 here. Therefore it may not work with Rhino 6. Indeed I foud Excel plugins are not compatibile with the latest version, which is weird. I’m probably going to create my own version.
You don’t sound ungrateful, but wrong. Since McNeel does nothing, it’s up to the users to stop the developers from abandoning their projects giving them support, nobody can’t eat with thanks. And the time it takes you to test the versions (for not reading before downloading) is nothing compared to the time (most likely) wasted by the author for that work.
F4R needs a lot of improvements anyway, even though it is doomed to be a repository of dead animals, it is ridiculous how many times users ask for help in the comments when the solution is in a very small “+ more” text button or that it has no information sections or that all downloads look the same… And so there are many other things. But these should not include making it more difficult for the authors.
Also, have you tried the advanced search? If you select “apps”, then you can filter through the different Rhino versions: https://www.food4rhino.com/browse
This is how you create demand for help and assistance to do the simplest thing. It’s there, but not visible unless you’re initiated into the secret knowledge.
Btw, you should get rid of the rating and comment section. Almost all plugins are free and specialized. Noobs give high ratings to poor plugins because they solve trivial things and low ratings because of not understanding the subject. I’ve seen great free and commercial plugins receiving bad ratings, because of not providing fancy UI or floating licenses etc. Apart from that how do you know a plug-in is incompatible if the developer does not own a Mac or the latest Rhino? Why should a developer care about User Support if he doesn’t earn a single cent?
For the same reason he/she shared it in the first place? I would hope any developer sharing software would feel obligated to provide a certain minimal level of support.
May be a bit more than I expected: My thinking is that the developer should accept the responsibility of ensuring that:
The distribution channel has all info necessary for deciding what versions of the support software it works with, including modifying the statement as required over time to indicate whether newer versions than it was originally released for are supported.
All necessary information for installing the software is clear and complete, including reacting with improvements to complaints that it is not.
A clear statement of the bug fix and improvement policy.
Remove the software from the distribution channel when it is overtaken by time and events. Dumping on the channel and forgetting it is not very polite nor responsible over the long run.
So IMHO a developer should assume the on-going responsibility to keep the “point-of-sale” decision-making information up to date with the changing environment. For support of the actual application itself there should probably be a different standard for open-source vs no-source. For open source a “here it is - it’s all yours now” is probably acceptable if not exactly desirable, but w/o source an approach similar to what you describe is probably the minimum as long as your decisions about your obligation are driven by some concept of fairness and the greater good for the most users and not just how bad your hangover is.
Close-source never implies more responsibility from the developer even if the distribution is commercial. For most freeware, the software comes “as it is”. You are asking too much.
I think the motivation for many developers is to just give people access to tools they are using for their own work anyways. Giving first level support or writing tons of documentation just to satisfy some user is a lot of annoying and time-consuming work.
And there is a very special sort of user. Those who are never satisfied, people who always complain, giving others fault for their own failure. This is actually a large group of people, so you get weird mails, sometimes even insulting. And if you don’t reply to that garbage you get a bad rating. This is why I decided not to provide free software anymore, except some smaller scripts here and there. But of course if you have a different motivation (e.g. you want to promote your free-lance activity) then this might be different.
