Re: [imp-dev] IMP project moving to github

[Jurgen Vinju <Jurgen.Vinju@xxxxxx>]

Hi Wayne,

I think it would be a bit strong to say that Eclipse has "too much overhead". Eclipse goes for a high quality, well reviewed process that is particularly good in supporting due diligence in the copyright department. Also, I think the Eclipse process works well for high quality infra-structure, stable API and plugins that people depend on. No complaints.

For continuing the IMP project, which currently has no supported staff working on it, we are looking to support a more automatic and more informal, yet still clearly traceable, way of allowing others to contribute. We currently work in an environment where students and other contributors come and go (i.e. are attached for only a few months). Each of these people contribute interesting experiments and additions while they are not eligible (yet) to have Eclipse committer status. From experience we know that github can support this more dynamic and informal situation. Github is also more inviting in that sense, since it has lower social and technological barriers for contributing code.

In short: no complaints about Eclipse.org, but we are wanting to try something new to boost participation for the IMP project. It also matters that Rascal is hosted at github, which makes heavy use of IMP, and we have good experiences so far.

Cheers!

Jurgen

P.S. sorry for the delay in answering your good question.

On Mon, Sep 24, 2012 at 2:57 AM, Wayne Beaton <wayne@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Hi Bob.

Can you be specific in terms of what parts of the Eclipse process are too much overhead?

Wayne

On 09/22/2012 07:09 PM, Robert Fuhrer wrote:

Hi Folks,

After careful deliberation with the other major IMP stakeholders, we've decided to move the project to github.

This is due in part to the facts that:

 1) I've voluntarily moved to a job that sadly doesn't provide a compelling reason for me to continue working full-time on IMP,

 2) as a consequence, the lion's share of the recent development activity has been driven by the Rascal project (http://rascal-mpl.org), which is hosted at github,

 3) we'd like to open up the IMP project to contributors more widely and with less overhead than the Eclipse process permits,

 4) github is a cool place to be :)

What does this mean for the IMP project and its users?

First, IMP is alive and well, and will be even more so in the coming months.

Second, this isn't merely a source repository move, it's a *project* move. We're still hashing out key details like web/wiki presence, bug tracking, mailing lists, releases, and such, but we fully intend that IMP continues to be a viable, reliable platform that lots of people can build on.

Third, we (the project leaders, Jurgen Vinju and I) will have much more freedom to decide who can contribute, and with a much lighter-weight process that should allow more people to contribute more easily.

I hope our reasoning is clear, and encourage you to join us at github, once we have the repository and other goodies set up. We'll post here again when we have more details on that front.

Cheers,

 - Bob Fuhrer, IMP project lead

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

--
Wayne Beaton
The Eclipse Foundation
Twitter: @waynebeaton
Explore Eclipse Projects

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

--
Jurgen Vinju
- Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica - SEN1
- INRIA Lille - ATEAMS
- Universiteit van Amsterdam

  www: http://jurgen.vinju.org, http://www.rascal-mpl.org,http://twitter.com/jurgenvinju
skype: jurgen.vinju