Hi,
On Thu, 24 Jul 2008, Raphael Collet wrote:
Dear Torsten & users,
Let me answer some of Torsten's questions, and share my own feelings about
Mozart.
Torsten Anders wrote:
My first question is whether it is a good idea to post a new MEP to Mozart
hackers instead of Mozart users. Actually, I doubt that more than half of
the eight members of the Mozart Board are at all subscribed to the hackers
list (please correct me if I am wrong), so it may be that they never see
this submission. Also, if we want that the Mozart community discusses the
proposal, then why not submitting it to the Mozart list to which most
likely most readers are subscribed?
I have just checked the hackers mailing list subscriptions. All board
members except Gert Smolka are subscribed. So the real question is: do they
actually read the messages on the list?
Isn't it at least as likely that it's middle of the summer and people
don't read mailing lists? Also, isn't it more reasonable to check MEP list
membership?
However, it may even be that not all members of the Mozart Board are
subscribed to or are regularily reading the users list. After all, few of
them are posting here. So, perhaps any MEP should also be send to all board
members directly by email in order to give them at least a chance to take
part in the process.
One could argue that Mozart Board members which are not following any
Mozart mailing list at all are perhaps not interested any more. I would
certainly not go that far. Nevertheless, perhaps the board members could be
asked, say, once a year whether they want to carry on with this this duty.
I think your analysis is correct. Times have changed, and it seems that only
2 out of 8 board members are still actively involved with Mozart: Peter and
myself. Don't get me wrong, I am not blaming anyone here. But it seems that
the board is no longer representative of the Mozart community.
Well, it has been 3 years, but only 2 out of 8 left seems like very
little. Is it because the people selected were already on the verge of
leaving or should this be considered normal?
I feel Mozart has the best chance to survive if we welcome everyone willing
to contribute with open arms. In the past, there have been cases where
potential developers/contributers where driven away, simply because there
existed no official way for them to add what they missed (e.g., I have in
mind past proposals concerning Unicode support). Meanwhile we have an
official way (MEPs). However, we should make sure that this process is
actually working. Moreover, in my personal view it would be best if
potential contributers can get the feeling they are indeed welcome -- if
the Mozart Board appears not to care than this may have the opposite
effect.
I am a more pessimistic about the future of Mozart. I think we have a very
serious maintenance issue here. Mozart's implementation is too complex and
too obscure for newcomers. It's too complex even for experienced developers,
in fact. I still have myself some trouble for understanding certain parts of
the code. Moreover it lacks modularity and documentation.
Is that something that can be fixed? Are there resources available to fix
it? Or is a complete rewrite needed?
I will leave the UCL in September, and start a non-academic career. I will
keep around for some time, but I cannot guarantee anything. I am not sure I
will want to spend my free time on hacking. Boriss Mejias, Gustavo Gutierrez
and Yves Jaradin will continue to maintain and develop Mozart, but I think
they will need some help...
None of those 3 are members of the Board. Maybe a new MEP is needed?
/pavel
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