cfix studio renamed to Visual Assert
Back when I began thinking about creating a Visual Studio Add-In for cfix, I needed a code name for the project. After tentatively using the name cfix+ for a while, I quickly settled on cfix studio – given that the project revolved around cfix and Visual Studio, this name pretty much suggested itself.
Soon after going into Beta, however, I had to realize that this name was not without its problems. Most importantly, it makes it hard for users to properly differentiate between cfix and cfix studio. This obviously led to situations where people were not quite sure whether cfix studio is a supplement to, replacement of, or just new version of cfix.
I would not care too much about this ambiguity if the two projects were not very different in terms of licensing: While using the Add-In will require a license to be purchased once it leaves the beta status</delWhile the Add-In is freeware (but not open source), the underlying cfix framework is, and will always remain open source and be licensed under the quite permissive LGPL.
As all APIs and libraries unit tests link against are part of the cfix framework, and the cfix framework itself is self-contained, this means that despite the Add-In being closed source, you still get the benefits of open source: Most importantly, there is no lock-in – you can stop using the Add-In and switch back to the command line tools at any time and be all-open source again. You are even free to create a fork of cfix at any time – there really is nothing other than convenience that binds you to using the Add-In.
Given that a growing number of people indeed tends to object to using closed source APIs and fears such vendor lock-in, I consider it important to stress this open source nature of the cfix framework underlying the Add-In.
However, at this point it should also become clear that a name that blurs the distinction between the two projects is counterproductive.
Based on this insight, I opted for dropping the cfix studio name and replacing it by something different: Visual Assert. This name should emphasise that the Add-In may be based on, but really is separate from the cfix framework.
The new name will be used beginning with the upcoming Beta 2 release.