Re: [cobol-dev] COBOL ide development

[David M Williams <david_williams@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Sebastiano, and others, 

Thanks for this information and your
interest. 

You'll see some of this coming through
the more formal channels a bit later, but at the Tools PMC meeting today,
we decided to proceed by scheduling a Termination Review for a few months
in the future (e.g. mid-February) which should give you plenty of time
to get a Continuation Review together, if that is indeed what you decide.


We did this simply to make it clear
that the default action will be the Termination Review. If you, or others,
counter with a strong Continuation Review proposal then that would be great,
we'll cancel the Termination Review and have the Continuation Review instead.


And, of course, even if the Project
is terminated, in February, then you, or anyone, can, in the future, submit
a new Project Creation Proposal to start a new Cobol Project  (and,
I'm no lawyer, but I'm pretty sure once EPL, always EPL, so the code will
always be there for future use, if needed ... it would only be archived
as part of the termination process.). 

So, give it some serious thought. We'd
love to see a Continuation Review. But, we would expect it to have substance.
And, we know you can't do it alone, in your spare time, so part of a strong
Continuation Review would be a substantial list of committers who have
time to commit to it. 

I appreciate your interest, and look
forward to your contributions. 

Thanks,

From:	Sebastiano Bussi <sebastiano.bussi@xxxxxxxxx>
To:	"Development discussions about the COBOL IDE for Eclipse." <cobol-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Date:	12/10/2009 05:45 AM
Subject:	Re: [cobol-dev] COBOL ide development
Sent by:	cobol-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx

---

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,

From:	suehisat <suehisa.tetsuya@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To:	cobol-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx
Date:	12/09/2009 07:25 PM
Subject:	Re: [cobol-dev] COBOL ide development
Sent by:	cobol-dev-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxx

---

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. 
> >
> >
> >
> >   
> 
> _______________________________________________
> cobol-dev mailing list
> cobol-dev@xxxxxxxxxxx
> https://dev.eclipse.org/mailman/listinfo/cobol-dev

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