The Cerilica website has, like its flagship application, sunk without trace, provoking calls for Vantage to be adopted by its userbase. The online home of the commercial software publisher expired last month, marking what is believed to be the final chapter for the application that showed so much promise.The vector graphics package, developed by Simon Birtwistle and released in 2001, was last updated in 2003. In 2004, it was relieved of its copy protection code and Simon admitted that he had been offered a 'dream job' which took him away from Vantage support. He initially built the software in 1994 for his own design company and Cerilica was formed to turn it into a full product, retailing initially at 240 quid.
Kris Adcock, who runs the independent Vantage mailing list, argued, "I think fans of Vantage have been under little illusion regarding its current status: that the domain has expired really means very little."
Wishing Simon luck for the future, Kris added that he would be delighted if the Vantage author contacted the software's users again to broker a deal to secure future development.
He said, "There are a lot of people, myself included, who would love to adopt Vantage, make it 32 bit neutral and give it a new lease of life. David Buck's sterling work on RiscCAD has shown how successful such a project could be - whether it is kept as a commercial product and sold at 'pocket money' prices, or whether it could even be released as freeware to give all RISC OS users a fantastic illustration package for free.
"As a programmer, I am always in awe of anyone who has both the skill to write software of that calibre and the stamina to see it through to release. If the Vantage source code is just languishing on a hard drive doing nothing and Simon has no further plans for it, isn't that a crying shame?"
Simon Birtwistle could not be reached for comment.
Links
Simon's Nemo Graphic website (RISC OS files)