Tuesday, March 19, 2024 11:40

Starfleet Academy Archive

For those of you who were regular users of this website for a few years now, you know this place used to host a Star Trek themed forum, regarding the development of a Windows Shell replacement called LCARS Terminal. Since the project has been dead for three years now, it is time for me, as the initiator of the project, to sadly announce the ending of a beautiful journey.

These days, it will be 3 years since this project was last developed. At first, I thought it will be just a temporary break. Then I though it is just a minor setback, that I will find new people, programmers that also love Star Trek and would be willing to help me continue the development. Sadly, more and more I realized in time that the perspective of resuming the work on the project is less and less likely to happen. I am sorry, maybe some people might see this as a desertion and abandon from my side. The Captain that never went down with the ship. It may be so. But as much as I love Star Trek, as much as I would love to see the Terminal complete, as much as I am dedicated to this community, I cannot continue being the only developer of the project. It is simply too much of a commitment.

At some point, Starfleet Academy meant to me almost a family. I dedicated a lot of time and devotion for that community, and it warmed my heart when it grew over the years. It hurts in a way that it has gotten to this, but it was kind of inevitable and involuntary. I am sorry that I wasn’t somehow a bit more pushy, a bit more aggressive in trying to get more support and keeping the project going. I don’t regret for a moment the countless hours programming the Terminal, or managing the forum, etc, but I do regret that from now on we shall not ever again gather under the name of Starfleet Academy. I regret that after years of hard work, we found no place in the Star Trek world, and we did not manage to carry on the legacy of this wonderful concept.

I can hardly find the words to describe what I feel now. I am sad… a little bit angry… But I am sure that at least for a while I’ve made a difference, and I would like to believe that if I not bred a new generation of programmers from the love of Star Trek, I at least managed to spread that love to people that might have never had the chance to find, appreciate and love Star Trek. Sadly, this was not enough, and I realize now it is too hard to walk against the wind. I got tired. And I lost hope. That is the saddest thing of all. I love you immensely… each one of you, those who were part of this community, those who supported me, those who encouraged me and offered their kind words of appreciation, those who gave time of their lives to help develop this community, those who were kind enough to test or simply use our Terminal. I thank you all for your dedication and unconditional support. Because of you.. I managed to carry on for so long… because of you I had the power to keep the project going for two years. For you I have created everything and tried to offer the best I had… but I am tired… And I hope you will understand me… And I also hope that you will remember that this project is never truly dead as long as you keep using it, or try to continue developing it on your own. It is all up to you now. I will release the source codes and all the files that I think are of any use to anybody, and I ask for no rights whatsoever over them. Anyone is allowed to use them as they see fit. It would make my heart happy to hear one day that someone continued this project. It would be beautiful.

I smile now. Coincidence or not, it’s been a five years mission. And it was a beautiful one because of you! I thank you all. It’s been an honor serving with you! But now, the space dock awaits… Stardate 161227… Good bye, Starfleet!

Cadets! You are dismissed!

signing off, captain Rusoaica.

Download section of the Starfleet Academy forum:

LCARS Terminal – The executable files of the Terminal.
LCARS Terminal source codes – The project containing the source codes of the terminal (Visual Studio 2010, mainly VB.NET , some C#, some C, some C++)

The original post on the Starfleet Academy also included these informations, which might help in solving execution issues:

This archive contains LCARS Terminal version 4.0 executable files. The program is not yet completed, and even if no one reported serious troubles, please acknowledge that you use this program on your own risk. We are not responsible for any harms, loss of data or any other damage that may be caused by the use of this program.
Most features are implemented and working. However, there are some subprograms that are not fully working, or not yet implemented.
Make sure to read the manual (the pages that were written so far) before asking questions. The manual is accessible by clicking the upper-right “HELP” button, inside Terminal.
This program looks better with the “LCARS” font to be installed. It was built using .NET technology, so, you will need .NET framework version 4.0 (the full framework, not the Client Profile). It can be downloaded here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=17718. For voice commands and speech recognition, you will need Microsoft Speech SDK 5.1. If you do not have it installed, it can be downloaded here: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=10121 . Finally, this program uses Macromedia Flash. If you do not have it installed, you can download it here: http://www.adobe.com/support/flashplayer/downloads.html


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