> > On Wed, Apr 10, 2002 at 09:06:11AM -0500, Jos? Enrique Alvarez Estrada wrote: > > --- Joaquim Carvalho <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> escribi?: [snip] > > What's my opinion? > > a) It's necessary to convert the traditional Computer > > Science's School into a "Software Fabric", like the > > Capability Maturity Model says, where student's may > > occupy all the "roles" and the professors becomes the > > project leaders. > > What's your opinion about that? > > Why should professers be the leaders of the actual project? I think > it's good for students to learn how to manage a project. The professor > should guide him with that. > > AFAIK GNU wants to work with the academic world to make free software > better than it already is, did you already contact somebody from the > FSF about this? > [snip]
I do not care if the person who is "leading" a project be a professor, a PostDoc, a Grad Student, an undergrad, or a 5 year old. I do care that the person understands the basic computer science involved (and not just as a technician/programmer/coder but as a computer scientist or informatician depending whether the discipline is Computer Science or Informatics in the region in which the work is being done -- naming nomenclature only). I know colleagues who are outstanding computer science theoreticians, and whom I would not let near a real software engineering project. As to whether or not Plex86 or any other effort formally obeys the GNU FSF development/implementation standards/guidelines set, I could care less. The GNU FSF has one set, the old CSRG had another set, and there are others. However, there needs to be *SOME* set. As for being under FSF, that merely was a possible suggestion to get Plex86 "competitive" with VMWare. However, using any production project (Plex86 is such a project, as is the GNU compiler suite) as a straight-out learning tool for students is not wise. Students will learn by being involved. Nonetheless, the person(s) "leading" the effort must not be "learners" or "amateurs". They may indeed be students and/or amateurs by any legal definition; functionally, they must be experienced professionals. That was one of the major shortcomings of Linux versus BSD -- Linux started as a very amateur effort, whereas BSD from the beginning was done by professionals. Free software? Open source? A discussion for another time. "Use the Source, Luke." Yasha Karant
