OpenPoker, a scalable poker server written in Erlang, is public on GitHub | Hacker News Reader

OpenPoker, a scalable poker server written in Erlang, is public on GitHub

wagerlabs.com

40 pointsjoelreymont14 comments

Not wanting to be a dick, but you could have chosen a less misleading name for the software considering it doesn't meet the Open Source Definition.

The term "Open" was used for non open source software many years ago - I think in the mid/late nineties there was a rash of it. If anything it was meant to imply "flexible", "new and fresh" and in rare cases, using open standards or able to be integrated with (often in the context of enterprise ERP type of stuff I am thinking mainly).

Not that its a good thing, but it does kind of have a precedent, FWIW ;)

While it may not be "free software" or "Open Source" (with capital letters) it's "open source" in the broader sense of the phrase.

Not to mention Open Source (proper) hardly has a monopoly on the "Open" prefix.

No one used "open source" to describe stuff with the source code available until the term came out to describe free software with a marketing friendly name. People who use 'open source' to describe what is proprietary code with source available are often just trying to confuse things. To be clear, he is not doing that, he's just using 'open', which is fair game, I suppose.

It did a few years ago and I kept the name since then.

There are also some poorly written, hasty implementations of machine learning algorithms written in Matlab.

I only mention this because it is pertinent to the reason why I am up at this hour reading Hacker News.

This is quite an interesting piece of software, however I keep wondering why it remains so restricted when it comes to licensing.

Also, do you still plan on working on a Ruby version of OpenPoker? I am quite interested in how you would go about designing such software with Ruby, since there isn't really an OTP-equivalent.

Thanks.

"Also, do you still plan on working on a Ruby version of OpenPoker? I am quite interested in how you would go about designing such software with Ruby, since there isn't really an OTP-equivalent."

But... why?

No plans to work on a Ruby version. Donation target not reached.

I like how a language invented 20 years ago for writing telecom switch software is now used for poker servers.

That's pretty sweet. Don't forget to hide yourself a back door in case any future poker rooms are built on top of it.

There _is_ a backdoor, the license. I'm not holding my breath, though.

Very excited to study this code. Thanks Joel!

No problem Rusty! The code is raw and I hate it. I'll be improving on it as I go along. I also have to finish tournaments this month, been putting it off for ages!

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