Hi,
(a bit longer reply or rather alternative. If you like, go directly
at the end with suggested next steps)
On 22.10.2005, at 12:46, Gregory John Casamento wrote:
GNUstep has been relatively stagnant over the last several months
and it has
become a cause for concern for me.
I am observing the same thing and realised few reasons (ordered how
they comeunder my fingers on keyboard):
External issues:
1. GNUstep desperately lacks an attractor for developers
2. GNUstep lacks attractor for users (this adds to the impact on 1.)
3. adoption (first contact, first setup, first installation) of
GNUstep is very difficult
Internal issues:
4. GNUstep has no project management, nor resources management, nor
task management
5. GNUstep has no single achievable goal, neither short therm nor
long term
You have already mentioned some solutions that I have removed from
this email, as they are already being discussed. Your suggestions
address mainly points 2,3 and somehow point 1. But there is still
problem 4 and 5.
GNUstep developers and friends are pulling the rope on the same end,
but to thousands of different directions :-) This reminds me a story
for children by Czech writer Josef Capek in a book Of Dog and Cat.
Dog (the dog) and Cat (the cat) wanted to bake a cake. They were
putting in a pot everything they liked and they thought that would be
good to have in the cake... "I like this, so I add it there" "Ok,
that would be fine. I'll at that, because I like that and it is
good" ... The cake was mixture only of "all good things", however at
the end it was uneatable. We are baking similar cake too...
Lack of larger picture, roadmap and kind of management affects
development. Also lack of requirements specifications is making
development of GNUstep much difficult and slow. Potential developers
do not know what should be implemented, not speaking about how it
should be developed.
From management point of view, first step that should be done in
GNUstep is detailed roadmap with very good task breakdown and
expressend depencencies. For this I would suggest to either revive
the 'Tasks' on savannah or use Wiki. With savannah one would have
better task tracking, however on the wiki there would be better
public visibility and accessibility, even it would be in a plain-
text. I would vote for the wiki option.
Tasks should be laid in a tree-like structure with good breakdown.
'CORBA' is an example of very bad task. Yes, one should start with
taks like 'Windows support', but then it should be broken into
'Installation', 'Pasteboard', 'UI', 'Distributed Objects', etc. It is
still not enough, because neither current nor new developer would
know, what should be implemented for 'pasteboard'. Therefore one who
knows should write: 'implement handling of type XY this or that way'.
Now back to the project, people, resources and time. Many, if not
all, core gnustep developers complain that they do not have time. Ok,
me neither. But I ask: "WHO IS GOING TO IMPLEMENT MISSING GNUSTEP
PARTS, IF THE ONLY KNOW-HOW HOLDER IS YOU?". Answer is: noone.
Solution: GET THE KNOW HOW OUT OF YOUR HEAD AND SHARE IT!. Please, if
every core developer was able to find just a little bit of time to
write unordered bulleted list of his observations or knowledge about
GNUstep that would be really helpful. And most importantly, write
what is missing. GNUstep developers do not even know what they do not
know, not to say that they do not know what they do not know and they
need to know.
Sharing your knowledge about GNUstep is investment in time. Shared
knowledge will decrease obscurity and therefore decrease entry
barrier for potential developers.
From the management point of view, as open-source project has two
major kinds of developers: voulentary ones and company developers.
Voulentary developers do what they like to do. Company developers
develop manily to satisfy company needs ignoring for them irrelevant
parts. Very roughly speaking, of course. We all know, that main
problem is lack of interested developers and time. Therefore the
person with a role manager or leader in this case should allocate
more resources for single task to decrease risk of non-implementation.
Please, do not underestimate the importance of good project and
knowledge management in development process. If a project is open-
source, it does not mean, that it should be only programming driven
as it is widely thought...
Suggested next steps:
- create roadmap with breakdown do implementable and understandable
tasks
- collect current knowledge
- learn what we do not know
- learn what we do not know and we need to know
- define project roles (and use person redundancy)
and last, but not least:
- observe and copy behaviour of successful players (*)
Regards,
Stefan Urbanek
(*) there are many inferior projects that have great success compared
to their alternatives. If it is not in the "idea behind", then whay
it is? Go, find out and apply to GNUstep. Reasons are various,
including: community suppport, poject management, knowledge
management, publicity and visibility ("if it is visible, it should be
good, no?"), friendliness, openness, flashiness, coolness, colourfulness
--
http://stefan.agentfarms.net
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you,
then you win.
- Mahatma Gandhi
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