Thanks David, the links were informative.
I'd like to tell you that I have in my pocket the names of ten
developers to contribute to the project but I don't. I see however a
lot of interest from potential users i.e. both young people studying
COBOL who don't have a mainframe account available and (usually less
young) people who need to understand/maintain/migrate existing host
solutions and don't always have the best commercial tools available.
But something viable needs to be provided first, and it needs to be in
a high-visibility place in order to gain acceptance (that's why I'd
rather to project not be closed).
On the plus side:
- There is now a viable open-source back-end (OpenCOBOL) which is
coagulating interest including eclipse-based front-ends
- At least one open-source project for an eclipse-based front-end
(http://www.metrixware.com/cobos/)
- Feature-set necessary to make the product useful is small
compared to other environments where cheap/free feature-set rich
alternatives are available
- I'm not just a developer, I have several years of experience of
project management, including projects with people spread over
different continents
On the minus side:
- Currently no backing from commercial interests, which means
having to rely on voluntary work. My own contribution would fall within
this category (at least for the moment). This is obviously a major
stumbling block.
In the first few months I'd concentrate on:
- Examining the existing open-source solution(s) from companies as
well as individual efforts to see how much code can be back-ported and
how easily
- Contacting companies (especially small ones) currently providing
proprietary eclipse-based plug-ins to see if they are available to pool
some resources on an open-source basic-capability solution over which
they can provide extensions
- Doing some (written) analysis and prioritization of the desired
feature-set
At that point it will be possible to estimate whether the available
resources are compatible with a minimum but still interesting
feature-set for a first release by the end of 2010. I don't think it
would make sense to promise anything right now.
In my opinion it's also important to get some endorsement (website
links and so on) from people like the maintainers of the compiler and
so on but one probably needs something to show first, so that might
have to wait a little.
By the way personally I'm worried about the fact that most big
commercial suppliers (like Fujitsu and Microfocus) are targeting .NET.
In fact with free products like NETExpress Personal Edition (endorsed
in the Murach book!) available and no credible open source alternative
more new developers are being led to think of .NET as the modern
serious-business platform heir to the mainframe.
I think it makes sense in general for the Eclipse ecosystem to welcome
and support an effort to add a viable COBOL plug-in.
Regards,
Sebastiano Bussi
David M Williams ha scritto:
It sounds like there is interest in
"transferring" this project to new leadership and committers?
Instead of the possible "Termination
Review" that's been discussed, another option is to have a
"Continuation
Review".
For the general topic, see the
Eclipse
Development Process,
http://www.eclipse.org/projects/dev_process/development_process.php#6_3_5_Continuation_Review
For some examples, see
http://www.eclipse.org/project-slides/Continuation%20Review%20for%20the%20Eclipse%20ATF%20Project.pdf
and the more recent
http://www.eclipse.org/project-slides/ATF_Continuation_Review-20090624.pdf
The most important thing for a
continuation
review is to show there is sufficient interest and people to keep
the project going towards a release.
And, for that, the Continuation Review documentation should lay out a
plan
for the project.
Does this look like something you'd
want to pursue? If so, please give me a 20 words or less summary
(figuratively)
and I'll discuss with the rest of
the
Tools PMC to be sure if they are agreeable to having a Continuation
Review
... say, around January 13 or 20?
Thanks,
Hello,
We think that we are going to terminate the project.
We appreciate your proposal. What can I do for you to take over it?
regards,
tetsuya.
> Hi,
>
> if this is the situation, I'd like to take over the project, I
wouldn't
> like to see it shut down. Which steps are involved?
>
> Mike Milinkovich ha scritto:
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> What's the current situation with the project?
> >>
> >
> > At the moment, it is in the process of being closed down.
> >
> >
> >> Who's coordinating it?
> >>
> >
> > No one that I am aware of.
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
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> https://dev.eclipse.org/mailman/listinfo/cobol-dev
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