Public SourceMage Discussion List

[Vlad Glagolev <stealth AT sourcemage.org>]

On Sun Jul 31 13:29:02 EDT 2011,
David Kowis <dkowis AT shlrm.org> wrote:

> I want to know, if any, what problems you all think we have, rather than
> what's rattling around in my head as to what I think the problems are.
> Or maybe I just perceive those as problems.

good idea,
the list of questions you've posted is very precise to our current tasks. so 
my thoughts are below:

> "We don't have good quality because..."

I always say that's a good plan is a half of solution of the problem. And we 
fail here absolutely.
And if so, one project comes to mind for me. It's a game (zomg, I _love_ 
games). It's FreeOrion
(never played it though).
This is the best long-running plan for the open source project I've ever 
seen. When we'll have
something like this [0], our aims will be completely clear and we'll know 
when and what to do next.

Our position on the Internet is unstable. We don't have good mirrorlist 
around the globe, informative
webplace for new users/developers/investors(heh), and reliable testing 
process -- guarantee of stability.

Another problem is a lack of good management in the project. Though, again, 
it's heavily related to
a plan existence. But we should discuss more. Discuss and solve problems more 
often -- I can suggest
monthly meetings, for which the TODOs and DONEs would confirmed. I'm pretty 
sure it won't kill your
private life.

> "We don't bring in new users because..."

Because they suck. Yes. Honestly, don't be liarzz. SMGL is a distro like 
OpenBSD in that case: "made
by developers for developers". It's pretty hard to install and mainain with a 
lack of information we
have officially (not hidden in wiki or irc-logs) published for many areas and 
specific setups.

And it's really hard to attract them. I think you know while having your own 
experience with that.
But when you found anyone -- almost with 100% probability the project will 
receive a good feedback.
Though it happens very rarely..

> "We don't have enough new things that are interesting to do because..."

because they are not interesting. Yes, there's recursion. Actually we should 
find the time not only
for simple bumping stuff, but for _real_ development -- integrating new 
features to cauldron, sorcery,
grimoire. meh. invent something. there's A LOT. bugzilla and even current 
tracker are full of them.

> "The grimoires are too complicated because..."

Because it has a lot of crutches which should be a part of Sorcery already. 
It's called 'code reuse',
and instead of doing things automatically we add/include non-existent 
functions, which work from time
to time.

> "The grimoires are too simple because..."

Because our spellbase is pretty small in comparsion with other Linux (and 
even BSD) distros.

Finally:
On one hand we should add new stuff, on another hand -- test the old one. And 
it's really not enough
time to do so with our current resources. But heh, there must be something to 
start with anyway.
So I'm for quality for the 1st. We could completely stop bumping stuff for 
some time and take 2-3 full
months to bring all our powers for:

1. fix current spell bugs
2. integrate some old-waiting features into sorcery
3. find and kill the bugs in castfs/installwatch for known problems
4. remove deprecated stuff (including that in spells) in grimoire
5. discover and set up a few places for 24/7 full mirrors
6. backport really useful information from old wiki to new wiki
7. play with design on www.sourcemage.org and make it look like a 
project-related webplace
8. release very basic but stable ISO installation with recent kernel (.35 is 
ok) at least for 2 arches
9. discuss-discuss-discuss

and yes,
0. elaborate the roadmap.

our 'substructure' has started to rot. let's try to resurrect it.

[0] http://www.freeorion.org/index.php/Roadmap

-- 
Dont wait to die to find paradise...
--
Cheerz,
Vlad "Stealth" Glagolev

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