Re: Changes I've been thinking of...

[Riccardo Mottola]

Hi,

Philippe Roussel wrote:
> For me, the one thing that really lowers GNUstep credibility is the
> super high 'bitrot factor' : a lot of the software found in the wiki
> is outdated, or it's website disappeared, or it won't compile or it's
> almost useless. Building the core librairies is good (thanks guys !)
> but we need a good set of working applications, easily found and
> easily built.
>
>   
True... applications need love and care just not to "bit rot". Whiich 
gives the user a terrible impression.
> One example I ran recently is AddressManager and the VCFViewer
> inspector. There is one version in GAP, one version in Etoile. One
> version of VCFViewer in AddressManager tree and one in GWorkspace
> website and wiki page.
>   
I am working on that, you are helping me too there. The GAP version is 
the official Addresses, Bjoern "donated" it to us.
GAP has become a kitchen-sink for apps not loved by their owners 
anymore... I try my best to keep them going and added in the last years 
several applications!
When a core developer like Enrico leaves, it leaves a lot of stuff... I 
don't think everybody realized how much Enrico did for GNUstep. With the 
releases, the wiki pages will be corrected, etc etc. We're gettign 
there, just slowly. You yourself are helping me out lately!
> There are multiple terminal applications (gap, backbone, etoile ?) but
> none really usable (to my knowledge, maybe I missed something).
>
>   
These are harsh words? I don't know of etoile, but the one in GAP works. 
I use it every single day! It may miss some features but works. ANd I 
assume backbone's does too, the code bae is essentially the same, but 
the philosophies about releases, makefiles etc. differ.
> There is Preferences and SystemPreferences.
>
>   
It is lecit to have more applications that do similar things! Happens on 
windows too... SystemPreferences is from Enrico, it is Apple compatible.
Preference's is more limited in the UI, has different modules but looks 
better :)
> GNUMail doesn't work for me and seems stalled.
>   
That is sadly very very true. TIm Kack found out what makes it crash, 
made a partial patch... but it is left there. He can tell us the 
details. But furthermore Ludovic should accept the patch, commit and 
make a new beta tarball.
> What I'm trying to say is that I think we should try to centralize
> things (one repository for all !) and work on a set of defined
> applications instead of collecting random stuff.
>
>   
That is not striclty necessary, but things should be clearly linked from 
the gnustep main site.
> One last thing about stable/unstable : the website frontpage advertize
> gnustep startup 0.23.0 as a stable release with make 2.2.0, base 1.19.1,
> gui 0.17.0 and back 0.17.0.
> In the download page, stable startup version is 0.22.0 and unstable
> 0.19.3. Stable base is 1.18.0 which for me means that base 1.19.1
> included in startup 0.23.0 is not stable. Same thing for gui and back.
> Question is : what should I download ?!
>   
Our downloads are terribly confusing!
> I hope this doesn't sound too negative, really. I really like GNUstep
> and wish to use a GNUstep desktop one day :o).
>   
It is honest, which is what counts.


Riccardo