Re: [Gnu-arch-users] Bounty for tla on win32

[Tom Lord]

    > From: John F Meinel Jr <address@hidden>

    > I also agree with Tom's idea of matching grants. If people want, I don't 
    > have any problem being a focal point for managing who is paying (for) 
    > what. But I also won't require that it be me. It might be better to have 
    > someone like Tom do it, since he is more officially part of the work.

I'm game but only contingent on demand.  That is: if you drum up some
people who want to make matching grants of substance, point them at me
and I'll try to work out how to be the coordinator for a modest
facilities fee (in the range of 2.5%..10%).  If the amounts are
significant and/or if it is more convenient, then perhaps we can
bypass me and ask the FSF if they would be willing to coordinate (but
I do not speak for the FSF).


    > I definitely want this to be an 'official' win32 port, so interoperating 
    > with Tom is important. I just didn't know how much was going to need to 
    > be changed to get it to work on win32, and if Tom would allow that into 
    > tla mainline. If all it ends up being is #ifdef _WIN32 #endif stuff, 
    > then my guess is it would be fine.

This is a totally nebbishy technical detail but I like to minimize
ifdefs.   There's almost always a cleaner solution.


    > How to handle multiple people, and best versus first, etc.:
    > I think there will need to be a "sign-up period" where I get a list of 
    > people who are interested. Then amongst the group, we'll need a general 
    > idea of what needs to be done (this should also involve leroy, Johannes, 
    > and Tom if possible).

Another consideration is the option of asking people to cooperate.
Long ago, I asked Affero to "factor out" their idea of a paylist
(single payer, multiple recipients) from the rest of their
strangeness.   That didn't work out but I still think it's a workable
(if legally intricate) idea.

A dream-future would have my paypal links replaced with pay-list links
that split up contributions amount contributors according to various
criterea.   It's a touchy issue because it comes close to operating as
a corporation but, afaict, it's workable.


    > Just so people know, I'm thinking < $500 from me. If we get more 
    > sponsorship, then obviously it will go into the pot as well. And even if 
    > the whole thing doesn't get done with this amount, at least we'll be a 
    > lot farther along.

On the topic of matching grants: this is an opportunity for the
informal, anarchist, developer-community equivalent of marketing and
sales.  We've had periodic "pings" here on gnu arch users for a while
now from people (some with .com addresses) remarking that windows
support is a critical feature.  So, yeah, this is currently a totally
whimsical and ill-formalized sub-project but --- within that context
--- interested folks should chat around and hit up their contacts; see
who might want to play.


"Don't count your chickens before they hatch." -- traditional
-t