Landon, Thanks for taking the time to provide the detailed background on on the Jump family tree. Seems to me like the Java 'tribe' is a bit more fractured than the C 'tribe'.
Rich On Jan 4, 2008 8:43 AM, Landon Blake <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Rich, > > I'll respond to your questions in a separate thread. :] (I invite any > other OSGeo members that work with OpenJUMP or UDig to correct mistakes > or add details to my post.) > > JUMP was originally developed by Vivid Solutions with some assistance > (I'm not sure how much) by Refractions Research. I believe the funding > for the development for JUMP came from some source in the Canadian > government. (This source was one of the Canadian Provinces, if I > remember correctly.) > > At some point funding was awarded for "JUMP 2". This time the funds went > to Refractions Research. Their development team had identified some of > the design flaws in the original JUMP, and decided to fix these. In the > end they decided to go with a completely new design, and UDig was the > result. > > In the meantime Steve Tanner and some other JUMP users decided to fork > the code base for JUMP. This was not done hastily. It's been a while > since all this happened, and I'm not clear on every detail, but I > believe one main reason we forked was a desire to internationalize > JUMP's source code. The bottom line is that Vivid Solutions was (in my > modest opinion) unresponsive to outside developers desire to make > reasonable improvements or even contribute patches. At the same time > they were doing very little with the code base themselves. This is what > led to the fork. At one point we had a handful of different individual > developers and organization maintaining their own versions of JUMP, and > we realized we could all get together and benefit from a common core. > > This is still how OpenJUMP operates. We've got guys that maintain their > own code bases with individual tools and modifications, but they all > make a good effort to port the best (and least controversial) stuff back > to the core. There really is no formal governance mechanism in place. We > all get along well and try to help each other out. > > There are some issues with our model of development. We don't have a > great release cycle, although that has been discussed in the last few > months, and developer turnover can be fairly high. I'm also easily > distracted, and I have to exercise self discipline to finish as task > once I start it. I must regretfully admit this has not helped the > project. (I'm consciously working on that personality flaw.) > > A couple of interesting things to note: > > - Our relationship with Vivid Solutions seems to have improved over the > course of the last year. The two developers at the company that are "in > charge" of JUMP occasionally help out with a problem on the OpenJUMP > mailing list, and users of JUMP and OpenJUMP share a common mailing > list. We've even talked about the possibility of merging JUMP and > OpenJUMP back to a common core, but I think this is unlikely without > some major funding at Vivid Solutions. > > - Had Steve and I known about Refractions Research involvement with > "JUMP 2" OpenJUMP and UDig would probably be the same program. I look at > this with deep regret, although I don't think it is anyone's fault in > particular. Still, I think about what the JUMP user community could have > accomplished with Refractions Research and I get little tears in my > eyes. :] > > Still, I get a kick out of Jody Garnett, and I hope OpenJUMP and > GeoTools/UDig can work together more in the future. We definitely have > some different approaches to certain aspects of software design, but I > think at a minimum we can share data I/O or data access code and map > projection code. > > Landon > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Richard Greenwood [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Thursday, January 03, 2008 7:32 PM > To: Landon Blake > Subject: Re: [OSGeo-Discuss] Re: FOSS4GIS business models > > On Jan 3, 2008 4:37 PM, Landon Blake <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > I think OpenJUMP might be an example of the opposite case. In this > situation the less-than-ideal management of a FOSS GIS program by a > private company led to a fork. The fork was made, not by another > company, but by a group of individual users/developers. > > I'm interested in more details of the history and relationship between > Jump, OpenJump, and uDig. I think OpenJump and uDig have roots in > Jump, which was started by Martin Davis, or am I incorrect? And the > fork came about when? And why? > > Maybe you would prefer to reply directly to the OSGeo-Discuss thread > "FOSS4GIS business models", but I'm afraid my questions are tangential > to that thread. > > Rich > > -- > Richard Greenwood > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > www.greenwoodmap.com > > > Warning: > Information provided via electronic media is not guaranteed against defects > including translation and transmission errors. If the reader is not the > intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any dissemination, > distribution or copying of this communication is strictly prohibited. If you > have received this information in error, please notify the sender immediately. > -- Richard Greenwood [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.greenwoodmap.com _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list Discuss@lists.osgeo.org http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/discuss
