Re: swarm support

[Alex Lancaster]

>>>>> "GR" == Glen E Ropella <address@hidden> writes:

GR> That's not quite true.

Jacobo Myerston writes:

>> So, it is in part true.

GR> Yes, of course, in the same way that I'm interested in lots of
GR> things but have to prioritize my time.  So, many people are
GR> interested, including at least 2 of the 7 main developers of
GR> Swarm.

One the things that the community needs to realize at this stage is
that there are *no* "main" Swarm developers.  That is, in the sense
that we currently have no paid staff to do the MacOS X porting effort
(or any coding for that matter).  Of course there are the emeritus
developers like myself, Glen and Marcus, but we've all got day jobs,
and as far as I know only Glen is actively using MacOS X (I'm purely
doing GNU/Linux)

Having said that, I have invested a considerable amount of time in
setting up the Savannah site so that we can use the collaborative
tools and CVS repository to push forward community-driven projects,
such as the MacOS X, and am also migrating the website and mailing
lists from our old SFI home to our new home at the the University of
Washington (thanks Jim Anderson!).

If you'd really like to contribute, then please sign up on Savannah,
and we can really push this thing forward.  I have mentioned the
Savannah site and this MacOS X porting task list several times on the
mailing list, but currently only Bill Northcott and Scott Christley
have volunteered.

Please also consider joining the SDG so that we can, in the future,
hire more programming staff to execute such projects. (E-mail Paul
Johnson, address@hidden for more details).

>> Alex Perrone got most of the swarm code compiled and asked for help
>> in order to port the rest of the libraries, but he din't get an
>> answer in the support list.

You need to stop thinking as if there is a 24-hour tech support line.
Right now, none of us is getting paid to do this.  Granted there are
folks with more experience than others, but Swarm is as much *your*
project as it *ours*.

GR> That's unfortunate.  But, it's part of being involved in an all
GR> volunteer community.

Exactly.  Since we are now purely a volunteer effort, the task that
are likely to get done fall into a few categories (ordered roughly by
complexity):

1. Tasks done on a very ad-hoc, part time basis (for me updating the
   website, maintaining our Savannah site, the CVS repository, mailing
   list, answering the odd question on the mailing list).

2. Tasks that involve simple testing/checking (e.g. for me, building
   snapshots of Swarm on Linux or helping Paul test RPMs).

3. Packaging Swarm for other systems.  This is an area where others
   could really help.  Obviously we would like a MacOS X port, but we
   also need a maintainers for the Windows port (by making it a true
   Cygwin package), Solaris and various other GNU/Linux flavours such
   as Debian, SuSE or Mandrake.

3. Swarm (kernel or application) development that is directly or
   indirectly related to paid work (for me, again building simulations
   for my PhD thesis or doing some development as part of our lab,
   although I'm doing neither of them now).

In my case, none of the tasks I'm involved with involve MacOS X, and
there's no way I could justify to myself (or my advisor) buying a
MacOS X box and start hacking.  

All I (and the rest of the "emeritus" developers) can do is help set
up an environment in which other interested developers and users can
help each other help themselves.

If anybody would like to volunteer for these, or any other tasks.
Please sign up at Savannah!

 https://savannah.gnu.org/account/register.php

>> There exists the idea under the swarm developers that OSX is cool,
>> but not to be taken seriously.  If we could change the believes of
>> the agents, we would get another behavior from them.  Actually OSX
>> can be used for serious development, think in a cluster of
>> multiprocessor xservers for distributed simulations.

GR> Those who believe OSX can be used for serious development should
GR> step up and ensure that OSX can be used for serious development.

GR> I don't.... yet.  OSX is a *very* young system.  

[...]

Jacobo, I don't know where you get the idea of the "Swarm developers"
(which really means the entire community of Swarm users right now)
having a collective opinion on MacOS X.  MacOS X is fine, I've nothing
against, either way, I just don't use it.  

Glen has his opinion on it, but it's not necessarily mine.  I'd love
to see a MacOS X port.  So please understand that doing the port is
purely a matter of time and resources, it's not like we all get
together and snicker about those MacOS X users behind our backs! ;-)
[In fact we all live in different states: California, New Mexico,
Kansas... so it's unlikely that we all could get together and snicker
about anything].

[...]

GR> Alessandro is doing just that and he is an indispensible asset to
GR> our community.

Agreed, and Alessandro, if you read this, please sign up at Savannah
then I can add you to the Swarm project, and we can push forward the
task list that Bill Northcott has kindly got the ball rolling on.

Alex
-- 
  Alex Lancaster           |  
  Swarm Development Group  |     web: http://www.swarm.org
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