> i think a key bit to collaboration is going to be setting some ground rules. > and the most important one imho is having a clear goal.
To keep the ball rolling, let me suggest that we drop the requirement that Plan 9 be self-contained as a measure to make some progress with existing expertise. I wish we could keep Plan 9 as the sole foundation, but I think that's just not viable, I feel treasonous suggesting otherwise, but I'm merely stating my sentiments, not imposing a rule here. At the same time, the danger that Pyhton-HG-Codeview and web access all somehow become unviable for the Plan 9 community (who knows, there's a lot of ugliness out there and, in my opinion, it is growing), I would like to propose a backup plan to ensure that developments are tracked outside of the HG. I used CVS with some success in the past in parallel with HG while Go for Plan 9 was still in its infancy, but it was a bit of a mission and I could not sustain it when the transition from "make" to "go-tool" took place: the changes were coming too thick and fast. Maybe hiro's fibre-optic based neural network will make the next efforts succeed (I restarted the CVS project in an effort to get the ARM developments of Go for Plan 9 in sync, but three months down the line I'm still precisely nowhere with that plan). Something to provide a similar, this time successful, safeguard would be great, some (including me) would no doubt say essential. I'd love to add a new-thought (new-age?) version control system based on venti and proto to Plan 9 and be the envy of the competition, but it would be a big project and more pressing issues in Plan 9 have much higher priority and more likelihood of success, in my opinion. I think we can all benefit from taking this discussion further, if only to explore how others are addressing the shortcomings of Plan 9 development and evolution and possibly discover new ways to deal with our own problems. No need to get political about it, what we need is some facts, some good or bad advice, some humour and, because this is 9fans, after all, some conflict. ++L
