Stefan, --- Stefan Urbanek <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> 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 Although we have Gorm and ProjectCenter, I believe we do need more to make GNUstep attractive to devs. Some debugging (think MallocDebug) tools and other things might be nice in this regard. Also, a fully working ProjectCenter would be good as well. > 2. GNUstep lacks attractor for users (this adds to the impact on 1.) We need more apps to make this happen. > 3. adoption (first contact, first setup, first installation) of > GNUstep is very difficult It would be nice if we could simplify things for users to make it easier to install. > 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 Both of these can be taken care of by the creation of a roadmap to show what the project is and will be doing in the future. > 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 Later, GJC Gregory John Casamento -- CEO/President Open Logic Corp. (A MD Corp.) ## Maintainer of Gorm (IB Equiv.) for GNUstep. _______________________________________________ Gnustep-dev mailing list Gnustep-dev@gnu.org http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gnustep-dev