This is excellent. You have our full support!

+1 for merging the projects (they effectively do the same thing)
+1 for rewrite from scratch (the code quality is not that good anyway)
+1 for picking Lua over Python

In fact we will be hiring 2 new FTE's we can put on this task for at least 12 months.

George.



(with a straight face)


On 04/01/2015 02:41 PM, Kenneth Hoste wrote:
Dear EasyBuilders and Lmod enthusiasts,

We are happy and excited to announce that we have decided to merge EasyBuild and Lmod together in a new tool, which we have named ELmod for now. Suggestions for other/better names are welcome.

In the last couple of weeks and months of close collaboration on Lmod-related features in EasyBuild (e.g., support for module files in Lua syntax) and Lmod performance improvements that were triggered by EasyBuild, we have come to realise that there is a lot of potential in working together on a joint codebase, rather than maintaining both tools side-by-side.

Development of ELmod has already started a while ago in our limited free time, but now that we have decided to continue on this new path, we are effectively stopping all development of the current instalments of the stand-alone versions of EasyBuild and Lmod. There will be no more releases of these tools separately. This will allow us to focus our efforts on getting ELmod stable in the coming weeks, and making sure it is a tool worthy of replacing EasyBuild and Lmod from the very start.

It is worth noting that ELmod will basically be a rewrite from scratch.

Since we have opted to use (only) Lua for this project, the existing EasyBuild codebase (currently written in Python 2) will have to be ported anyway. The good news here is that Lua syntax is quite close to Python syntax, so porting the 50k LoC EasyBuild codebase shouldn’t take too long.

As has popped up recently on the Lmod mailing list, the recent Lua version 5.3 offers powerful new features that are particular interesting for Lmod. In particular, the new integer/double number type offers computational features that will drive the new code base. These require restructuring the current Lmod code however. As it turns out, reimplementing the existing Lmod functionality in Lua 5.3 seems like the easiest way of tackling this.

We’re keeping the ELmod repository on GitHub private for the time being.
If you would like that obtain early access to ELmod, and/or help out with developing ELmod, please let Robert & me know by replying (off-list please).

We will keep you posted on our progress in the coming weeks and months.

Kenneth & Robert
ELmod release managers and main developers

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