[Scope-dev] Collaboration [2]

[Christian H. <chr...@tu...>]

----------  Forwarded Message  ----------

Subject: Re: [jos-general] Re: [jdistro-devel] Where do we go ?
Date: Wed, 2 Jul 2003 23:29:53 +0200
From: Christian Heller <chr...@tu...>
To: Gilbert Carl Herschberger II <gc...@mi...>

> It is rare and precious to find someone capable of bringing people
> together. Are you that person? I think so. Many of us think we have
> different goals, and need to travel in different directions...

Thank you, I feel honoured :-)

At first, one question: Is there a reason you didn't send your email
to the lists? I didn't find any confidential things. On the contrary,
it contains good and important proposals!

Right. My honest statement:
1 I think that such an effort is needed.
2 I could offer to create that project, preferrably on Savannah.
3 I offer to create an easy website (similar to http://www.cybop.net).
4 To raise a mailing list.
5 For the actual work, that is integration of our projects, I don't have
the time right now. I am currently writing my dissertation (12 months),
already maintaining two Free Software projects (you know what that
means), have 6 students for diploma works, a "real-life" project etc.
6 Nevertheless, the super-project mailing list alone might be worth it.

The work "on putting the results of these projects together into something
people can use" sounds quite much like packaging for Debian. I could
ask for an interested developer in their lists. Most don't like Java
that much because it is not "free" but somebody might have an interest.

> A new project should be focused on integration and feedback. We need to
> explain to the specialists how they can make their project more compatible
> with what other people are doing.

This is exactly what the Debian people are doing!
I revise my statement from above and suggest to first ask in the Debian
project before creating our own. However, a mailing list may still be
useful.

> What is the name of the new project? and its mailing list? How about
> something that plays on where we come from? Java United Application Network
> (JUAN). Or, Open Common API For Existance (OpenCAFE).

Could it be something more general, without the name "Java", too?
It might eventually go a different way (you also use C++ right now and
I plan some XML-based language; others were talking of Jython).
Something around the term "System", because that is what we all are
trying to build? "UniSys"? But isn't that an existing company?
I guess most of you wouldn't like "CYBORG" = CyberneticOrganism :-)
(simply a system built after the principles of nature).

> There are jars, wars, ears. But I would like a set of Java applications
> that all deploy the same way. And no, WebStart is not it. Your API,
> framework and class library should be deployed differently than a Java
> application. I would like to put class libraries into a class library
> archive and applications into an application archive. I would like to do
> with my compiled code what I already do with compiled C/C++ code. I want
> different deployment for shared libraries (.so and .dll) and executable
> programs (.exe). More on that later.

I didn't think much about deployment yet. In GNU/Linux, applications spread
their information to various directories: /usr, /usr/lib, /etc, /home.
As everything, this has advantages and drawbacks. A single .jar with
all needed data inside is also not bad, it has clarity. But then using
shared information from other directories is difficult.

Another point is the possible XML-based programming language I think
about. Do you think it would be performant enough when being interpreted
as is? No need for compilation then. No need for packaging? Don't know.

Christian