Re: [Alphacocoa-devel] Bernard

[Fischlin A. <and...@en...>]

Dear all,

I am very, very sorry to hear these sad news. I feared there might be something wrong as Bernard has responded in the past always so promptly and kindly. I indeed feared that Bernard might not be well as there was suddenly only silence from his side. This is a very great loss.

I must say Bernard’s contribution is paramount and humungous and of a such outstanding quality, a quality that is rarely found in open source communities, and I mean that does apply not to just the core software, but is also true for the documentation, actually the entire environment or universe of Alpha. I fear it will be very challenging to pick up the baton where he left it. Of course, on the other hand, the very high quality of all the work he did would provide an excellent basis. 

Perhaps following ought to be done: First, Bernard ought to be properly honored within Alpha, sort of a monument in his name, so that all his contributions will also be remembered well. He was too modest for doing that himself. Secondly, I would argue that Alpha’s functionality should not be extended in any way but only maintained. This means a focus on bug fixing and minimally necessary adaptions to keep Alpha alive on newer systems. Otherwise we risk to erode the current high quality Alpha has reached thanks to Bernard. I hope a sufficient number of dedicated volunteers will come together to maintain Alpha in such a manner.

These are just some thoughts that cross my mind with respect to Alpha and the sad news I had to learn about.

What do YOU think?

Andreas Fischlin


ETH Zurich
Prof. em. Dr. Andreas Fischlin
IPCC Vice-Chair WGII
Systems Ecology - Institute of Biogeochemistry and Pollutant Dynamics
CHN E 24
Universitaetstrasse 16
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SWITZERLAND

and...@en...
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> On Mon, 09.10.23, at 02:36, Michel Tallon <mt...@ob...> wrote:
> 
> Dear Sylvain,
> 
> Thank you very much for your message. I'm very sorry to hear this sad news. I was just discovering the Cocoa version of Alpha, admiring how well designed and well done Bernard's code is. May he be thanked for this exemplary work.
> I really hope someone can continue this work.
> 
> Best regards,
> Michel Tallon
> 
> On 07/10/2023 12:25, Sylvain Loiseau wrote:
>> Dear all,
>> 
>> I’m very sad to have to inform you that Bernard passed away some month ago, after a long illness. Despite his great discretion and modesty, we know how hard he worked and how willing he was to help everyone with the projects he was working on.
>> 
>> Thanks to his very specific capabilities, he has made AlphaCocoa a mature software in just a few years. I'm afraid it won't be easy to continue updating Alpha without him. I hope that a discussion will emerge and that competent people will be able to maintain Alpha.
>> 
>> Best regards,
>> Sylvain
>> 
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
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> --
> Michel Tallon, CRAL, Observatoire de Lyon
> 
> 
> 
> 
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