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Re: GNUstep moving forward
From: |
Gregory John Casamento |
Subject: |
Re: GNUstep moving forward |
Date: |
Sun, 23 Oct 2005 07:35:30 -0700 (PDT) |
Stefan,
--- Stefan Urbanek <address@hidden> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> (a bit longer reply or rather alternative. If you like, go directly
> at the end with suggested next steps)
>
> On 22.10.2005, at 12:46, Gregory John Casamento wrote:
>
> > GNUstep has been relatively stagnant over the last several months
> > and it has
> > become a cause for concern for me.
> >
>
> I am observing the same thing and realised few reasons (ordered how
> they comeunder my fingers on keyboard):
>
> External issues:
> 1. GNUstep desperately lacks an attractor for developers
Although we have Gorm and ProjectCenter, I believe we do need more to make
GNUstep attractive to devs. Some debugging (think MallocDebug) tools and
other things might be nice in this regard.
Also, a fully working ProjectCenter would be good as well.
> 2. GNUstep lacks attractor for users (this adds to the impact on 1.)
We need more apps to make this happen.
> 3. adoption (first contact, first setup, first installation) of
> GNUstep is very difficult
It would be nice if we could simplify things for users to make it easier to
install.
> Internal issues:
> 4. GNUstep has no project management, nor resources management, nor
> task management
> 5. GNUstep has no single achievable goal, neither short therm nor
> long term
Both of these can be taken care of by the creation of a roadmap to show what
the project is and will be doing in the future.
> You have already mentioned some solutions that I have removed from
> this email, as they are already being discussed. Your suggestions
> address mainly points 2,3 and somehow point 1. But there is still
> problem 4 and 5.
>
> GNUstep developers and friends are pulling the rope on the same end,
> but to thousands of different directions :-) This reminds me a story
> for children by Czech writer Josef Capek in a book Of Dog and Cat.
> Dog (the dog) and Cat (the cat) wanted to bake a cake. They were
> putting in a pot everything they liked and they thought that would be
> good to have in the cake... "I like this, so I add it there" "Ok,
> that would be fine. I'll at that, because I like that and it is
> good" ... The cake was mixture only of "all good things", however at
> the end it was uneatable. We are baking similar cake too...
>
> Lack of larger picture, roadmap and kind of management affects
> development. Also lack of requirements specifications is making
> development of GNUstep much difficult and slow. Potential developers
> do not know what should be implemented, not speaking about how it
> should be developed.
>
> From management point of view, first step that should be done in
> GNUstep is detailed roadmap with very good task breakdown and
> expressend depencencies. For this I would suggest to either revive
> the 'Tasks' on savannah or use Wiki. With savannah one would have
> better task tracking, however on the wiki there would be better
> public visibility and accessibility, even it would be in a plain-
> text. I would vote for the wiki option.
>
> Tasks should be laid in a tree-like structure with good breakdown.
> 'CORBA' is an example of very bad task. Yes, one should start with
> taks like 'Windows support', but then it should be broken into
> 'Installation', 'Pasteboard', 'UI', 'Distributed Objects', etc. It is
> still not enough, because neither current nor new developer would
> know, what should be implemented for 'pasteboard'. Therefore one who
> knows should write: 'implement handling of type XY this or that way'.
>
> Now back to the project, people, resources and time. Many, if not
> all, core gnustep developers complain that they do not have time. Ok,
> me neither. But I ask: "WHO IS GOING TO IMPLEMENT MISSING GNUSTEP
> PARTS, IF THE ONLY KNOW-HOW HOLDER IS YOU?". Answer is: noone.
> Solution: GET THE KNOW HOW OUT OF YOUR HEAD AND SHARE IT!. Please, if
> every core developer was able to find just a little bit of time to
> write unordered bulleted list of his observations or knowledge about
> GNUstep that would be really helpful. And most importantly, write
> what is missing. GNUstep developers do not even know what they do not
> know, not to say that they do not know what they do not know and they
> need to know.
>
> Sharing your knowledge about GNUstep is investment in time. Shared
> knowledge will decrease obscurity and therefore decrease entry
> barrier for potential developers.
>
> From the management point of view, as open-source project has two
> major kinds of developers: voulentary ones and company developers.
> Voulentary developers do what they like to do. Company developers
> develop manily to satisfy company needs ignoring for them irrelevant
> parts. Very roughly speaking, of course. We all know, that main
> problem is lack of interested developers and time. Therefore the
> person with a role manager or leader in this case should allocate
> more resources for single task to decrease risk of non-implementation.
>
> Please, do not underestimate the importance of good project and
> knowledge management in development process. If a project is open-
> source, it does not mean, that it should be only programming driven
> as it is widely thought...
>
> Suggested next steps:
>
> - create roadmap with breakdown do implementable and understandable
> tasks
> - collect current knowledge
> - learn what we do not know
> - learn what we do not know and we need to know
> - define project roles (and use person redundancy)
> and last, but not least:
> - observe and copy behaviour of successful players (*)
>
>
> Regards,
>
> Stefan Urbanek
>
> (*) there are many inferior projects that have great success compared
> to their alternatives. If it is not in the "idea behind", then whay
> it is? Go, find out and apply to GNUstep. Reasons are various,
> including: community suppport, poject management, knowledge
> management, publicity and visibility ("if it is visible, it should be
> good, no?"), friendliness, openness, flashiness, coolness, colourfulness
> --
> http://stefan.agentfarms.net
>
> First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you,
> then you win.
> - Mahatma Gandhi
Later, GJC
Gregory John Casamento
-- CEO/President Open Logic Corp. (A MD Corp.)
## Maintainer of Gorm (IB Equiv.) for GNUstep.
- GNUstep moving forward, Gregory John Casamento, 2005/10/22
- Re: GNUstep moving forward, Sašo Kiselkov, 2005/10/22
- Re: GNUstep moving forward, Fred Kiefer, 2005/10/22
- Re: GNUstep moving forward, Nicolas Roard, 2005/10/22
- Re: GNUstep moving forward, Stefan Urbanek, 2005/10/23
- Re: GNUstep moving forward,
Gregory John Casamento <=
- Re: GNUstep moving forward, Sheldon Gill, 2005/10/23
- Re: GNUstep moving forward, Sašo Kiselkov, 2005/10/24
- Project Manager/Center (Was: Re: GNUstep moving forward), Stefan Urbanek, 2005/10/24
- Re: GNUstep moving forward, Adrian Robert, 2005/10/24
- Re: GNUstep moving forward, Sašo Kiselkov, 2005/10/24
- Re: GNUstep moving forward, Serg Stoyan, 2005/10/29
- Re: GNUstep moving forward, Sašo Kiselkov, 2005/10/30
Re: GNUstep moving forward, T.J. Yang, 2005/10/24
Re: GNUstep moving forward, Riccardo, 2005/10/24