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title, location, excerpt, cover, ogType
| title | location | excerpt | cover | ogType |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sponsoring Onyx | Moscow, Russia | Standardizing and implementing a system programming language is hard, but you can help! | /public/img/posts/2020-08-27-sponsoring-onyx/think-about-it-meme.jpg | article |
Standardizing and implementing a system programming language is hard, but you can help! Find out how you can sponsor the future, and many hours does it take to create a language mascot, in this post.
TL; DR;
I wAnT yOuR mOnEy! 🤑 Pledge to my will at Patreon or buy me a beer at BMC! 😂😂😂
Table of Contents
${toc}
Introduction
I've been working on the Onyx programming language full-time for the past year. The work includes standardization and implementation. The process is near to completion, and there is a substantial chance for you to write your name in history.
In this post, I'll try to justify my eager will to grab your money with some proof of work.
By the way, I assume you've read my recent post on System Programming, there is a section regarding to the open-source sustainability; as long as all my work is open, I'm also, um, an open-source engineer and thus need financial support.
Deeds Already Done
The onyxlang.com domain name was registered on June 20^th^ 2019. As I have a sin of registering domains as soon as I have a solid idea, the day may be treated as the Onyx birthday.
Today is August 27^th^ 2020, and I've already spent a plethora of time on Onyx. You can see it for yourself in NXSF and FancySoft organization repositories!
Tracked Time
From June 20^th^ 2019 until August 27^th^ 2020, this is the total time I've spent on coding Onyx specification, reference(s) and implementation(s):
::: hero
1043 hrs 34 mins
:::
I've had hard time on maintaining a single project across machines, so there is a lot of them (projects). You may click on a project's name to see a detailed timing per file.
Due to WakaTime limitations, I have to split the periods.
From June 20^th^ 2019 until June 20^th^ 2020:
| Project name | Time spent{style="width: 10rem"} | Notes |
|---|---|---|
onyx |
362 hrs 28 mins | Three generations of compilers. There even was one written in Lua! |
onyxlang |
237 hrs 47 mins | The Specification |
lang |
109 hrs 25 mins | A mix of specification and references |
onyxsoftware |
29 hrs 21 mins | Specification, again |
kaleidoscope |
25 hrs 32 mins | Well, I've been learning how to fight dragons! |
ref |
18 hrs 9 mins | Some reference |
reference |
15 hrs 10 mins | Duh |
onyxstd |
14 hrs 45 mins | An attempt to implement a standard library... in Onyx |
onyxcontrib |
10 hrs 7 mins | Some Onyx code like HTTP server implementation |
onyxc |
9 hrs 58 mins | Another work put in a compiler |
code |
9 hrs 29 mins | The Visual Studio Code extension |
compiler |
7 hrs 36 mins | A compiler? |
| Total | 849 hrs 2 mins |
From June 20^th^ 2020 until August 27^th^ 2020:
| Project name | Time spent{style="width: 30%"} | Notes |
|---|---|---|
onyxlang |
106 hrs 1 min | The Specification |
nxc |
47 hrs 56 mins | The C++ Compiler, finally |
onyx-quickref |
19 hrs 29 mins | The "quick" reference |
onyx |
14 hrs 31 mins | Mostly reference |
onyxlang.com |
2 hrs 44 mins | The website |
quickref |
2 hrs 42 mins | Also reference |
fancyx |
1 hr 9 mins | Some parts of the C++ compiler |
| Total | 194 hrs 32 mins |
Untracked Time
One shall not forget that designing a language does not equal constantly slapping keyboard strokes. In fact, implementing before giving a good thought may lead to tragic results.
![Shower is the general sponsor of Onyx](../../../public/img/posts/2020-08-27-sponsoring-onyx/thinking-meme.jpg "A 'programming is mostly thinking' meme" =60%x)
I've destroyed several notebooks while deciding on either using do / end or tabs.
There has been a double of them throughout the year, but who's gonna believe in it?
Would you dare to calculate the number of sleepless hours I've spent on thinking?
![](../../../public/img/posts/2020-08-27-sponsoring-onyx/some-notebooks-1.png "A pile of three notebooks" =49%x) ![](../../../public/img/posts/2020-08-27-sponsoring-onyx/some-notebooks-2.png "Contents of one of the notebooks" =49%x)
Time Tracked in Real... Time
WakaTime is awesome, because it allows to embed recent coding statistics, so you can see how much I wasted my youth coded during the last 30 days!
Sponsoring the Development
So, the idea is simple: I want to be able to pay my bills while working on a thing both I enjoy working on and being useful for humanity.
Later on, I'm planning to make NXSF an official 501 (c) non-profit organization, so donations made to it would be tax-exemptive, and I will have an official salary (finally!). However, this would only happen when the language moves to the alpha stage (see the roadmap at nxsf.org).
Right now, Onyx is in the pre-alpha stage. Nothing is publicly stable, work-in-progress etcetera.
::: off
Note that theoretically I could've tried applying to Open Collective right now, but:
-
It implies free-will donations, but what I'm proposing here is clearly purchase of placement in history;
-
I don't think Onyx is currently "popular" enough;
-
They take huge commissions.
:::
But I still need to pay my bills. And as I haven't got a real job for a long, long time, my financial cushion is relatively thin.
As a copyright holder, I'm planning on licensing the Onyx Standard Specification and auxiliary standards with a free, open-source license requiring attribution.
Therefore, I can offer you, a potential sponsor, a perpetual* attribution in the standards I'll be working on during the pre-alpha development stage. Your name or company logo with an optional link would be put into according "early contributors" sections of the standards.
* As long as my attribution is required. For example, if a standard is rewritten from scratch by an NXSF committee without infringing my patent rights, it then stops being a derivation of my work.
The Dark Scheme
First of all, what I'm proposing is not a donation. It is a purchase of placement in my attribution texts, a sponsorship contribution.
Of course, you're free to pitch your ideas informally, but you will not have any voting rights in the standards development with this sponsorship.
There are three sponsorship tiers:
-
Individual contribution: from $25 per month (compensates half an hour of my work). You're attributed with your name or nickname.
-
Individual contribution with a link: from $100 per month (compensates two hours of my work). Same as previous, but also with your custom link.
-
Business contribution: from $500 per month (compensates ten hours of my work). Your company's logo and link are attributed.
I want to incentivize early contributions, so the pyramind scheme is as follows.
I learned the hard way that estimating time on completing such a big project as a language specification is quite hard. Nonetheless, I'm planning to move on to the alpha stage in 3-6 months from today (August 27^th^ 2020).
The earlier you contribute, the more belief you have in me, the more you shall be rewarded. And higher reward means higher placement in the contributors list!
The placement of your attribution depends on your contribution score, which is based on the amount you've contributed. Each month from today until the alpha stage, the score multiplier is reduced proportionally. The multiplier stays the same for you throughout the months if you contribute sequentially, i.e. without cancellations.
::: spoiler An example
Let's imagine that alpha stage comes December 13^th^ 2020. That means that since September 1^st^ 2020, 3 full months passed. The contributions are made 1^st^ of each recurring month.
| Month a contribution was made | Contribution score multiplier{style="width: 50%"} |
|---|---|
| September | 1 |
| October | (1 - 1/4) = 3/4 |
| November | (1 - 2/4) = 2/4 |
| December | (1 - 3/4) = 1/4 |
If Jake began their sponsorship in September with $100 per month without cancellations, his final score would be 100 * 1 + 100 * 1 + 100 * 1 + 100 * 1 = 400.
If John contributed $100 once in October, then skipped November and contributed the same $100 in December (as the hype grows), his final score would be 100 * (3 / 4) + 100 * (1 / 4) = 100.
As a result, John's placement would be lower than Jake's in the contributors list.
In case of argument, the day a contribution was made matters: making a contribution on 3^rd^ gives more score than on 5^th^.
:::
Note that to be actually listed in the contributors list, you have to contribute the minimum corresponding sponsorship tier amount at least once during the pre-alpha stage. For example, even if you're continuously sponsoring with $24 per month, but never contributed $25+, your name will not be listed.
Also, note that individual tier contributors are listed separately from business tier contributors.
My Soundcloud
You're welcome to become my patron on Patreon or BuyMeABeerCoffee.com.
Neither is preferred, choose whichever you like most.
I'm not planning on creating paid posts etc.
The difference is that BMC only has a single tier, but allows one-time contributions, which are counted as well.
Direct Bitcoin donations are also accepted, but they are not eligible for listing.
Everlasting Dev
I want to assure you that I have no long-term plans on living on these sponsorships. I'm neither a YandereDev nor some Alex Medvednikov. The sponsorship opportunity is in effect exclusively during the pre-alpha stage.
Once the Foundation is established, you'll be guided to put your money there instead, in the form of donations. This implies tax exemption and voting rights.
Fancy Software LLC is a for-profit company and I as no other else want Onyx to be complete, so I can start working on my premium packages, self-hosted, gaming and AI products. No Patreon sponsorship or non-profit salary can buy me a house.
![Unless I am a Mozilla Foundation manager](../../../public/img/posts/2020-08-27-sponsoring-onyx/think-about-it-meme.jpg "A 'think about it' meme" =100%x)
Until then, I want to be able to pay my bills and maybe purchase a newer graphics card. In return, you get a chance to be immortalized as a visioner invested in a better future.
Follow me on Twitter and GitHub, and also follow NXSF and FancySoft to stay updated about the progress made.
Oh yes, there is also an official (i.e. NXSF-governed) standard planned on the language's mascot. It will be a panther-girl named Onyx-chan. Nya! 🐾