Today I finally released version 0.0.1 of NiFiPi.

It was far more exciting than I anticipated. And also far harder than I thought it would be. Not technically, but emotionally. I battled with feelings of inadequacy and constant thoughts of what more needs to be done to make the gem really useful. There are so many features I think NiFiPi ‘needs’ to be useful and there are already code smells developing that ‘need’ to be fixed. I sat down to release this version and instantly started working on the code. “I really should test that the positioning of a processor is correct”, I thought. This was followed quickly with “Urgh, this is already a pretty unweildy interface” and “Is it acceptable to require a running nifi instance for testing?”. This could have gone on for ever, but I managed to reign it all in by asking myself one simple question…‘why?’.

Why?

I wanted to create something that is useful to the community. That’s the goal. All the questions and distractions were hindering that goal (however well-intentioned). I can code all day and night and never produce something useful. Even if I do it’s by chance not design. The only way I can find out if people will find this useful is to get it out there! So I did.

I am hoping people will find NiFiPi and use it. Even if they find it buggy and lacking functionality, hopefully they will see the potential and pass those suggestions on. Maybe, with enough iterations, I might be able to build something really beneficial. Version 0.0.1 is free and I’m already excited for the next one!