gnustep-dev
[Top][All Lists]
Advanced

[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: GNUstep moving forward


From: Gregory John Casamento
Subject: Re: GNUstep moving forward
Date: Sat, 22 Oct 2005 10:46:29 -0700 (PDT)

Fred,

--- Fred Kiefer <address@hidden> wrote:

> Gregory John Casamento wrote:
> > GNUstep has been relatively stagnant over the last several months and it
> has
> > become a cause for concern for me.
> > 
> 
> Here I have to agree with you. GNUstep is for some time now actually
> usable, but progress and contributions have slowed down a lot. I can
> only talk about my own reasons for contributing less. Now idea, why
> other core developers like Alexander Malmberg, who was responsible for
> the great progress on gui in the previous year, no longer contributes.
> But the same is true for Quentin and even for Adrian in recent months.
> To be honest, there never were more than just a few people working on
> gui at the same time. We just need to find new people taking up the
> orphaned work, or get the old ones back again. For example it is great
> to see Nicola working on make again!

I believe that many of the developers who are not contributing might be busy
with some things in Real Life[tm].  I know, for me, sometimes real life
intrudes and I have little time to do what I wanted for GNUstep.   So, in
short, I don't think it's lack of interest, only lack of time.

> > I've been doing a lot of thinking and have compiled a list of things I
> believe
> > that GNUstep needs to address to stay on top of things.   The list follows:
> > 

<list of things deleted... see previous email...>

> 
> All of this is true. It would increase the general preception of
> GNUstep. Make it a better usable system. But who should be doing this?
> We will need to motivate developers first. In my view, the bounties that
> Adam presented some time ago, are a desparate step in this direction.
> But I know of no better one. Perhaps one, I remember when joining
> GNUstep there were these list Adam had set up on the GNUstep web site,
> listing open tasks, classes to do and time frames for all of this. Of
> course this was somewhat ridicules, how could you set up a schedule,
> when you don't ahve any resources to control? Still, for me this was a
> motivation to join and to do my part to keep the schedule.

I believe that what GNUstep needs most of all right now is a Road Map.   Some
goals which basically illustrate what the future holds and where GNUstep is
heading.

> > We as a project need to be more adaptive and less resistant to change. 
> More
> > than anything right now we need to consider the audience we are playing to.
> > GNUstep needs to be better able to integrate with other environments.
> > 
> 
> I am not sure, if GNUstep is really that much against change. I for my
> part would like to see GNUstep integration with DBUS and other new hot
> technologies. Perhaps I might even start to work on that. Do you have
> any specific examples of change resistence in GNUstep? My feeling is
> rather that new stuff in GNUstep gets ignored until the person working
> on that gets bored. To me this happend with the win32 stuff, the
> keyed-encoding and currently again with the cairo backend.

Well, there is, for some reason, a perception that the core devs are against
change.  We should work to get rid of this perception.  

Some examples from long ago include some of the points I made above, which
include the integration of a theme engine.   In some cases, people have
suggested that GNUstep conform to the FHS, which I find to be a little odd, but
the frustration comes from the fact that some of these arguments were dismissed
out of hand.  As well as various other things over the years.

Most recently, it's the discussion concerning SVN, which I really don't believe
is over by any stretch given that RMS has said it's okay for us to move to GNA.
 
> > Additionally, I've noticed recently a trend for certain people to
> constantly
> > query the list asking for permission to make this or that change.  It seems
> > that what we need more than anything right now is more action and less
> talk. 
> > If you are interested in doing something, please do it! :)
> > 
> True!

:)

> > Please think about what I've said and let me know your thoughts.  I say the
> > above out of concern for the community.   GNUstep is and always has been a
> true
> > labor of love for me.  I want to see it thrive.
> > 
> 
> Same for me :-)
> 

Later, GJC

Gregory John Casamento 
-- CEO/President Open Logic Corp. (A MD Corp.)
## Maintainer of Gorm (IB Equiv.) for GNUstep.




reply via email to

[Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread]