Re: [Lxr-dev] Status of this project?

[Malcolm B. <mal...@gm...>]

Hi,

On 3/18/07, Jan-Benedict Glaw <jb...@lu...> wrote:
> On Fri, 2007-03-16 11:38:34 -0400, Paul Smith <ps...@ne...> wrote:
> > Is anyone actively working on this project?  I see some commits went in
> > in January, but there are a lot of bug reports that aren't being managed
> > (many duplicate bugs and no one seems to be closing them) and a number
> > of the bugs being reported are already fixed in CVS, but there's no
> > release available, or comments about when a release might become
> > available.  There are also a few patches that look like they (or the
> > ideas they implement) could be helpful.
>
> AFAICT, there's no "active" work being done at this time. The last
> patch I saw popping up here on the list was some perl5 compatibility
> stuff for callin exit(), IIRC (which is still unreviewed.)

Don't be so hard on yourself - you merged a GIT backend a couple of months ago!

It's true we're woefully overdue for a release - CVS head is
reasonably stable and could arguably be made v1.0.  I've got a bunch
of things I want to experiment with in the browsing experience, but
they're post-1.0 features.  And require time...

>
> > I have done some work in my local version which has a big performance
> > increase for my source tree, using swish-e (it won't help everyone's
> > environment: it really helps with handling non-text files).
>
> Great. Care to send some patches for review?

Indeed!

> > Before I go too much farther with enhancements/fixes I'd like to have an
> > idea on the status of LXR; is it still viable?  Are there thoughts about
> > a new release (even just a 0.9.5, not 1.0)?  Is there a need/desire for
> > new developers on the team?  Or, is everyone just using their own
> > customized version and they're happy with that?

There's both a need and a desire.  While lots of people have their own
customised versions, there's still a steady stream of downloads and I
believe that there's plenty left to do that would be valuable to the
majority.

> LXR is, to my knowledge, also the only project in this area, that
> works. So that's a definitive answer (at least from my point of view)
> that you're right in starting hacking right here if something doesn't
> work for you, or that you place bug reports.

Totally agreed!
>
> In the case of bug reports, I'd suggest sending them to the list and
> not to SourceForge's bug tracker.  I don't think anybody pays too much
> attention to it....

I read the tracker - and am more likely to remember the bug if I ever
get time to fix things than in the mailing list.  You'll get more
response in the mailing list though - so both is a good option :-)

> > Should I start looking more seriously at alternatives such as OpenGrok,
> > etc.?

Of course not - heresy :-)

Cheers,

Malcolm