From: Christian H. <chr...@tu...> - 2003-07-02 11:47:49
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(Again a cross-posting ... but this is an important integration issue. I think we all develop and develop but inter-communicate too little.) Hi Gerard, what was the reason for many of our projects to get started? - JOS: an Operating System written in Java - JDistro: a Java Desktop and Distribution containing several applications - Scope: an extended MVC framework for Swing/JSP application creation - CYBOP: a generic Java framework for system/application development - ResMedicinae: a Java-based Medical Information System Of course, there are many similar projects but what's common to the projects above is: - they are GNU GPLed (sorry, Scope is BSD) - they use the Java programming language My personal (lifetime) visions (dreams) are: - a flexible operating system which can run on any device - which allows in a very simple way to code input/ output modules (textual/curses, graphical, web, vocal, Braille etc.) - which already provides derived applications with basic communication mechanisms, their protocols etc. (RMI, CORBA, SOAP, JDBC) so that an application just sets a flag for which mechanism to use and that's all - which integrates a nice desktop environment - and all kinds of useful applications - especially a complete Medical Information System including an EHR -- Electronic Health Record (the reason why I personally started free software development) - this all in an easy, clear, error-minimized way of programming (which is why I had chosen Java as my favourite; possibly a new language, for example based on XML, in the future -- Java is not "free"! Python gains more and more popularity) How do I think we all can contribute to that (or a similar) vision? - continue to work on our projects - start to look yet more into our neighbour projects - try to find possible points of cooperation and communicate them JOS: - Did you think about how to allow a Graphical Desktop to base on JOS? JDistro: - Did you try to build on JOS or to integrate it into your distribution? Scope: - It seems to be very quiet in your mailing list. Did you all give up or continue to contribute to the Free Software Community? - Did you encounter design problems in Scope? If yes, then which? What can we all learn from it? - If the design turned out to be incomplete: What should be changed? - If the project has stopped: Did you try to find a similar project to bring in your knowledge and continue your work? CYBOP (the questions I frequently have to ask myself): - Did you loose focus, starting off from a small medical application (ResMedicinae), ending up thinking about a generic framework for all kinds of systems, about Operating System issues and even about a replacement for the Java programming language? All: - Do you try to steadily improve your architectures and to be open for new, effective ideas? - Are you fixed on Java only or open to replace it wherever it turns out not to be the ideal solution? I can give you an answer to the CYBOP-questions, why I am where I am now and how I came here, starting with one single line of Java code. Can you answer the questions on your projects? All I want is that we try to collaborate a bit more. Whenever something seems unclear to me, I just ask the neighbour lists, for example some months ago about Java event handling interna which were unclear to me. Meanwhile, I could replace it in CYBOP by my own signal handling. (I don't like the callback stuff with interfaces etc.; they cause too many bidirectional interdependencies within a framework/ application; but that's another topic.) Concrete for JDistro: - If the Desktop runs fine as it is, then just release your 1.0! - Knoppix is a good idea; I think JOS was thinking about the same? - Where do the console applications in JDistro and JOS differ, what functionality is the same? Can this effort be merged? - You mention a "JDistro library so that applications can be developed" which sounds much like an "application framework" to me. Did you inspect Scope and/or CYBOP to use their ideas or, better yet, to build on these frameworks? Which of their ideas would be good for JDistro? - The "virtual File System" is truely a duplication effort since JOS as potential operating system has developed one, too. Christian On Wednesday 02 July 2003 10:31, Gerard COLLIN wrote: > Hi, > > I like being part of this project, which I think is one of the best Java > project available (and I'm using it everyday). > > But I think something is missing: A goal. > > What is the goal of JDistro ? Technically, it's to run all java > applications in the same JVM under the same Desktop. That's fine, and I > think most applications (except the heavy ones) now runs fine. But this > could go one forever ! > > In short, what needs to be in JDistro so that we can release a 1.0 ? What > needs to be there ? > > I would like to discuss here what the result would be ? Should we make a > JDistro CD using KNOPPIX ? If so, what progress is made in this area ? > > Is it a goal to make a JDistro library so that application can be developed > for it ? > > I've seen that a virtual File System has been developed. What for ? As no > applications are developed specifically for JDistro, what interest ? If we > use KNOPPIX, then it will take care of that itself, no need to do it... > > I think now it will bring more visibility to the project if we say in the > website, our goal is to ... For that, we need to progress in ... and ..., > we are currently working on .... etc. We need to focus on something in > order to motivate people ! > > What do you think ? > > G?rard |