Domino Effects :: IBM killed the Sandbox !

Category IBM Lotus Sandbox
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This morning I wished to search the Sandbox for inspiration on how to improve my form field validation routines. When I clicked the Sandbox link I had the unpleasant surprise to land on a page that says that starting on September 2010, it is no longer available.
I knew that it was closed for new submissions, but I was not expecting it to be moved offline (at least before several years...)

The Sandbox (and more generally the Note.net Web site) has been my companion since I began developing with Notes 3.0 in 1995, and more than a useful tool, this is another Lotus symbol that goes away.

If we keep the emotional aspect aside, the Sandbox was a repository I used from time to time looking for ideas and forgotten pieces of code or presentations, even after 15 years of Notes development.

I don't think this is the smartest thing IBM did these last times, especially if it wishes to attract more developers on the Notes platform (by giving the Designer client for free, for instance) that does not look very consistent.

Of course I filled in a feedback to protest against this closure, promising that I will talk about it in my blog... it's done !

Comments

1 - IBM is killing off Lotus Notes so this is just another nail in the coffin

Posted by Michael Marcavage At 18:52:50 On 08/09/2010 | - Website - |

2 - @Thierry, IBM has been increasingly using OpenNTF to post open source utilities and code samples; in my opinion, continuing to maintain the Sandbox for the same purpose would be wasted effort on their part.

@Michael, I don't know who you've been talking to inside IBM, but the folks on the engineering team I spoke to last week didn't seem to have been made aware that their employer is discontinuing the product. In fact, based on what they demoed to us, they've been quite busy on the next round of enhancements, so I imagine they're going to feel like they've been wasting a lot of effort. But I'm assuming your information is coming from someone much higher up in the organization. It's a shame, really... after 20 years, Notes was finally starting to show some promise. </sarcasm>

Posted by Tim Tripcony At 19:09:14 On 08/09/2010 | - Website - |

3 - @Michael: Though your opinion sounds a little bit excessive, you're right on the fact that IBM's strategy about Lotus has not been crystal clear at all times...

@Tim: I agree that OpenNTF had to become the "official" repository for Notes open source code submissions. However, I would have appreciated if the Sandbox had been kept alive in a "read-only" mode (this should not represent a huge expense for IBM), if only for sentimental reasons, but also by respect for the early Notes adopters.

Posted by Thierry Cayla At 21:43:16 On 08/09/2010 | - Website - |

4 - I only used the sandbox last week! Found a great little web calendar database which was a huge help in a project I just finished.

A real shame to see it go.

Posted by richard At 22:47:04 On 08/09/2010 | - Website - |

5 - Am lucky - I Downloaded the DB from them while back

Posted by Palmi At 23:57:43 On 08/09/2010 | - Website - |

6 - why not move the projects on Sandbox to OpenNTF?

Posted by Patrick Kwinten At 06:27:06 On 09/09/2010 | - Website - |

7 - @Patrick, More likely legal reasons. Anything submitted to OpenNTF has to be code reviewed and to make sure nothing is taken from source that can't be put into OpenNTF (Apache license).

A lot of Sandbox stuff was ancient (well over 10 years old), never updated and source not always freely available. Some tools functionality were absorbed into later versions of Domino/Notes.

It was not uncommon to get support calls on the sandbox wanting bugs fixed when the whole sandbox is unsupported.

Least with OpenNTF it offers the ability to get more people to fix the code at a later point.

Posted by Simon O'Doherty At 07:24:25 On 09/09/2010 | - Website - |

8 - I agree that removing the Sandbox is a mistake. I've decided to share it on my site for the time being: { Link }

Posted by Peter von Stöckel At 08:23:52 On 09/09/2010 | - Website - |

9 - @Peter: That's huge! Thanks for sharing !

Posted by Thierry Cayla At 08:57:22 On 09/09/2010 | - Website - |

10 - I am was using sandbox and open ntf , they r having different database .. Hope OPEN ntf will share all sandbox databases ...

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