[News] Weekly Squeak Article

[Klaus D. Witzel]

Ron,

I like the way you condensed the several "disjoint" directions. Also, the  
title is very, very appropriate and there is not often such a chance for  
wording something with "squeaking" :)

Wasn't there also Cees De Groot <cdegroot at gmail.com> who suggested to  
support as many "disjoint but mergeable" images as the community wants?  
This might look little OT but I think that Cees should make it into your  
article.

Besides of that I wouldn't change a single line.

/Klaus

On Thu, 13 Oct 2005 19:15:38 +0200, Ron Teitelbaum <Ron at USMedRec.com>  
wrote:

> Giovanni and all,
>
> Here is a first pass at an article for the Weekly Squeak.  Let me know  
> what
> you think.
>
>
> ===================================================
>
> The Foundation is Squeaking.
>
> By Ron Teitelbaum
>
> The Squeak foundation is off and running and already there are major
> squeaker issues.  I guess most of what we see today on
> squeak-dev at lists.squeakfoundation.org could be considered growing pains.
> The major issue that arose this week was raised by stéphane ducasse
> [ducasse at iam.unibe.ch].
>
> The following is all paraphrased.  Let me say now that if I got it wrong
> please feel free to correct me on the list.  The benefit of a summary is  
> to
> highlight ideas, and I hope I was able to do that.  Also I hope that if I
> left some important person or comment out that you will correct that  
> also.
> Everyone's input is valued.
>
> The problem: There is too much work to do to properly manage the release
> cycle.  There is not enough expertise to do it right.  There is not  
> enough
> development in areas that are buggy because nobody wants to work on some
> parts of the code.
>
> Solutions:
>
> Stéphane ducasse [ducasse at iam.unibe.ch]: Use the money collected by the
> foundation to bring commitment, professionalism, and a qualified person  
> to
> the harvesting area.  Also we could fund projects to fix code that  
> people do
> not have the time or interest to fix.
>
> Göran [goran at krampe.se], Ken Causey [ken at kencausey.com]: Change the
> structure to allow better access to package owners (stewards and  
> Reviewers).
> Allow for ownership of packages, email links to owner or group, bug
> reporting to group, and repository for changes to be posted and made
> available.  Move the coordinating and integration of changes to this new
> group and let the group be responsible for working with Harvesters to
> release code.  The greater access to groups will help to allow great
> contribution form general squeakers.
>
> Marcus Denker [denker at iam.unibe.ch]: Changes is good, but real  
> experience is
> needed to solve real integration problems.  Problems can not be ignored  
> and
> progress can not take forever or people will stop making progress while
> there changes are being harvested.
>
> Andreas Raab [andreas.raab at gmx.de]: Less control is good, we need to give
> more of the control to people that actually do the coding.  Write access
> should be allowed to teams (possibly like the Göran and Ken "Steward"
> model).  Changes need to be reviewed and discussed with owners.  People
> should resist the urge to "FIX" someone else's code without discussing  
> it to
> find out if they even properly understand the code.
>
> Chris Muller [chris at funkyobjects.org]: Images are just that, collections  
> of
> useful code.  It is difficult to get everyone to agree what the one  
> standard
> configuration should be.  We could allow the publishing of working  
> community
> images and build tools to help integrate from one image to another.  By
> allowing configuration publications, and custom images for custom  
> purposes
> the images with the most community support will grow, others may not but
> overall people will pick the best configuration for their need.  This
> removes the need to review and agree on a single image.
>
> Juan Vuletich [jmvsqueak at uolsinectis.com.ar]: Bug fixes yes, major  
> releases
> no.  Major releases should be packaged up and controlled by the developer
> and released separately and they can be loaded by users that want them.
>
> Michael Rueger [michael at impara.de]: lets stop reinventing and try  
> learning
> and using the system we have.  Mantis is intended to facilitate group
> discussion and coordination maybe we could write an interface to
> automatically fill out forms (much like Göran and Ken's changes suggested
> for bugs and repositories).  Let's use the tools we have to help fix the
> problem.
>
> So where does that leave this problem.  I think with some really great
> progress.  The squeaking is loud at times but hopefully it will lead to a
> better organized and more efficient community group.  The struggle over
> authorship and control, time and energy, stability and innovation, are
> always problems for every group.  It is to everyone credit that change is
> being discussed, and it should be the responsibility of all to ensure  
> that
> we make things better.  Stef and Marcus should be commended for the hard
> work and the dedication to this group.  Contributions from some very
> talented people should be acknowledged there would be no squeak without
> them.  This is what a community is all about, we are much more as a group
> then we could be alone.  This is all about helping each other, learning,
> doing, and having fun.
>
>
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