Re: Object-Archiv

[Stefan Böhringer]

I'm in favor of such a software collection.

Perhaps I can put into this discussion some experiences gained from the
famous MiscKit that was in place in the NeXTstep/OPENSTEP days. You can
still obtain information about that project on http://misckit.com [Don, if
you are on this list, please chip in].

One conclusion is that definitely cvs access is a must. Don Yacktman did an
excellent job over many years to apply patches in his source tree and bring
out releases frequently [this was in times when anonymous cvs was alien].
Then NeXTStep/OPENSTEP ran into trouble and Don didn't have the capacities
to do the laborious maintenance job any more which brought the project to a
halt.

The MiscKit was used commercially, but there were restraints on account of
two things: the arcane MiscKit license and quality. LGPL is fine but quality
would still be an issue for a similar GNUstep related project. Such a
library would potentially grow fast and uncontrolled bringing with it
duplication of functionality, an inhomogeneous class hierarchy and the like.
A solution discussed for the MiscKit was to split the library into two part:
the wild and the tame (the attributes were not used back then). "Wild" can
be extended in a very liberal way and is considered "low quality". If a set
classes is to migrate to "tame" it should fulfil several criteria. E.g.
there have to be regression tests for the classes, they have to fit smoothly
in the class hierarchy as present, there must be documentation and so
forth...
The bottom line is that migration would have to be discussed explicitly and
decision should be on several shoulders (one is not enough).

Just my thoughts.

Best wishes,

    Stefan

----- Original Message -----
From: "Chris B. Vetter" <chrisv@web4inc.com>
To: <discuss-gnustep@gnu.org>
Sent: Thursday, July 03, 2003 3:14 AM
Subject: Re: Object-Archiv


> On Wed, 2 Jul 2003 19:41:30 -0500
> Ian Mondragon <copal@dragonhelix.org> wrote:
> > This is quite possibly one of the best suggestions I've seen on the
> > GNUstep lists in a while.  We should definitely do this.  I have a lot
> > of little things I'd be happy to submit, and I'm sure it would prove
> > more useful than most of us would think.
>
> Indeed it is.
>
> > What does everyone think?  Perhaps we could utilize sourceforge or
> > savannah?
>
> However, this is not ;-)
>
> Sourceforge, pardon my French, sucks.
> It's either down or you get kicked off in the middle of a cvs checkout
> IF you even can connect in the first place.
>
> And as of late, the same holds true for Savannah, though at least THEY
> seem to have it somewhat under control.
>
> --
> Chris
>
>
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