Re: [myhdl-list] Proposal to change license of wwww.myhdl.org

[Christopher L. <loz...@fr...>]

>
> Jan L wrote:
>
>   I am a little reluctant to send this to the list as I dont really 
> want to offend you, but rather give you my opinion why some things are 
> not working as expected. If you are comfortable with it, you can 
> forward it to the list.
>


I think the letter is excellent advise, so,  I am publishing it to help 
move this conversation forward.

On 5/2/11 8:17 AM, Jan Langer wrote:
> Am 02.05.2011 um 16:45 schrieb Christopher Lozinski:
>> But in this case, we have a problem, that MyHDL is not growing as fast
>> as we would like, and furthermore, the class libraries and test
>> harnesses are barely there.   They certainly do not meet my needs.
>
>
> Hi Christopher,
> it seems there are only two ways to solve this problem. First, you sit 
> down and implement what you need. Or second, you find other people 
> doing it for whatever reasons. Somehow, the second is unlikely to 
> happen. People like spending time and effort for a good cause, but you 
> got to convince them that what you need is such a good cause. The best 
> way of doing this is going forward yourself. Work on solving your 
> problem and eventually people will help you if they can see this is 
> going somewhere.


>
> Maybe you can just write down your future plan in some detail and 
> outline what your part in it will be. Then you can ask if someone is 
> willing to join the effort. For my part, I dont really get your 
> overall concept. You say you want to offer a commercial class and I 
> personally doubt that enough people will buy the class to 
> significantly grow the MyHDL community or to earn a living for the 
> teacher. Another point is that a class is best taught by an expert of 
> that topic. So the best way for you is to become an expert by 
> implementing stuff.

All excellent advise.  So let me proceed.

I believe that there are a significant number of software hackers who 
would like to build things using FPGA's.   People like myself.  We take 
a look at current microprocessors, and they use 2 billion gates (and one 
Bill Gates)  to execuate 10 instructions per clock cycle.  That is 200 
million gates per instruction per clock cycle.  Surely we can do 
better.  And they hear that FPGA's can do 100 times better, and they are 
hooked.  What do they do?  They can use MyHDL, or Verilog, or VHDL.  I 
tell you, the only option for me is python and MyHDL.   Because I am not 
only building a FPGA, I have to build a considerable software stack on 
top of it.

These are not necessarily hard-core Python developers.  They are the 
guys who hang out in Silicon Valley at places like Hacker's Dojo.   They 
may know a little python, they have heard good things about it, and are 
happy to use a python toolkit, MyHDL.

The class will cost $50, the board another $50.   I think a lot of these 
guys will have no problem to check it out.  Some will stay.

Will I make much money on this?  No.  But I will have a great time, and 
I am learning so much in this process.   I am finding my path. I am 
getting educated.   Thank you for all the help.  My apologies if I often 
get it wrong.

And I think that the guys who agree to teach these classes may be able 
to land some more lucrative MyHDL consulting gigs.

So what is to be done?    The next big task is to put together a slide 
show. Just like the Spanish introductory presentation that arrived this 
morning.   I am sure other things will need to be done.   Booking 
venues, answering questions, buying boards.  Processing credit cards.  
Refunding cancellations.  And dealing with the unexpected.

And then we need to take this show on the road.  I am happy to go up to 
Silicon Valley from time to time.  I had so much fun on the bus back 
yesterday.  Started learning Korean.  Their sentence structure is like 
Japanese!

> I think the best way to help MyHDL is to use it and during doing that 
> improve MyHDL itself and its online documentation. As I see it thats 
> exactly the way Jan D and others are successful.

I understand this point of view.  There is a huge difference between 
doing something for me, and doing it for someone else.  If I were to 
work on MyHDL for myself, I would focus my attention, on the floating 
point class libraries, and the different ways to export them.  If I am 
to work on this for someone else, I would teach them about FPGA's, and 
python and other such introductory things.    Those are different 
focuses.   So as a group, we need to facilitate the entry of new 
members, and reach out to them, by offering such a class, in a location 
where they are going to be, with an inexpensive circuit board, or better 
yet, a borrowed circuit board.

So that is my plan.  I invite people to help make this happen.  Many 
hands make light work.  I am happy to divide up the small amounts of 
money we make however people feel comfortable.  I do not want to do it 
all myself.  I think each of us can do what we most enjoy.  And if there 
is one part that does not get done this way, if several of us do it 
together it will be quite easy.


-- 
Regards
Christopher Lozinski

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