side projects and sub projects

[Richard Frith-Macdonald]

In the discussion list Doc O'Leary is a troll I've blocked (I don't know why 
you keep feeding/responding to him Riccardo; I hope it doesn't get too 
depressing for you).
But ... one of his strange comments I recently saw quoted in one of Riccardo's 
replies to him (gnustep has no goal; in spite of the fact that a year or so 
back, he was pointed tom the clear statements on the website) got me thinking 
about all the non-GNUstep stuff under the GNUstep umbrella.

While the mission statement seems so clear on the website that only a troll 
would say it's not:

GNUstep is a framework for portable software development in the Objective-C 
language based on Apple's Cocoa (formerly NeXT's OpenStep) APIs.
It consists of core portable software libraries and a few key portable 
development tools/applications to use them.
It targets complete compatibility with the OSX-10.4 Cocoa API (but also adds 
later APIs)
It freely accepts subject to copyright assignment) portable contributions to 
improve/update OSX Cocoa compatibility.

We are less clear about all the other stuff, outside GNUstep core itself, that 
we generally support to various degrees.

There are many related projects and ideas which are not part of GNUstep proper, 
but which GNUstep developers consider to be worthwhile side-projects which 
should be supported; including code changes/extensions within GNUstep itself.  
Changes to GNUstep may be incorporation of contributed software to update OSX 
compatibility, addition of new non-OSX APIs, or even alteration of library 
internals to support integration with other projects.

These side projects, while not GNUstep proper, are commonly referred to using 
GNUstep as an umbrella term;

Etoile  ...                             experimental cutting-edge code 
GNUstep Applications Project ...        collecting free application which use 
GNUstep
GNUstep Reference distribution ...      producing a reference distribution with 
GNUstep plus a
                                        full desktop environment based on it.
OSX native developer support ...        for developers who want to use 
proprietary OSX tools
Windows native integration ...          theme and tools for integration with 
native windows look and feel
GNU/Linux native integration ...        theme and tools for integration with 
GNU/Linux desktop environment

and many more (mostly less important, but apologies to anyone left out)

I guess we could also have sub projects (as opposed to side projects), where 
the aim of the project is solely to feed back into GNUstep and improve it in a 
major way.
eg. a ten-point-five project by people interested in a concerted effort to 
audit and contribute enough of the OSX 10.5 Cocoa API changes for GNUstep to 
target complete compatibility with that version of OSX, or a project to make 
mouth-wateringly pretty API documentation for GNUstep.

I use the term 'project' loosely here.
Some have been worked on by a team or are regularly maintained by someone
Some have had individuals do informal work
Some of these are really just wishlist items ... nobody is actually doing them

In all cases, if anyone were to volunteer then GNUstep people would help, but 
we lack the manpower/time to initiate/sustain that sort of thing.



So a suggestion/query;

Would it make sense to maintain a table listing all these 'projects', 
describing their aims, reporting their status (active, maintenance, wishlist or 
something like that), giving links and contact details (maybe even a signup 
mechanism) for people to get involved and coordinate with each other?

I think trying to publicise/support these side projects would actually feed 
back into GNUstep rather than sucking away resources.