Re: [Gnu-arch-users] Re: SourceForge-like repositories in an arch-centric world

[Stephen J. Turnbull]

Old thread, new input:

>>>>> "Tom" == Tom Lord <address@hidden> writes:

    Tom> I think it's interesting to ask whether there isn't a much
    Tom> simpler, more robust, more flexible, more extensible
    Tom> infrastructure possible -- perhaps putting some of those
    Tom> pieces together.

    Tom> You know -- we can just pretend the 1990s never happened.

As a development infrastructure, probably.  But one thing that's
potentially useful about the megasites is social/legal:  they provide
an index of and access to full documentation for "prior art."

Note that Freshmeat doesn't really perform the same function,
especially from the point of view of the PHBs who run the PTO.
They're looking for centralized "publishing houses" with more or less
verifiable histories rather than ways to access private archives.

Caveat: I don't know if this will actually work for patent-busting,
but I can say that I've received upwards of a dozen mails from folks
like Greg Aharonian (sp?) requesting confirmation that XEmacs "does X"
and a pointer to archives where implementations of "X" can be found.

Arch's ability to sign archives is potentially very useful in enhancing
credibility here, too.

-- 
Institute of Policy and Planning Sciences     http://turnbull.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp
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