Re: [platform-swt-dev] MacOS X port status?

[Maurice Parker <maurice@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Mike, 

On 11/29/01 9:25 AM, "Mike Wilson/OTT/OTI" <Mike_Wilson@xxxxxxx> wrote:

> 
> My understanding of the situation is that, the PMC isn't likely to want to be
> involved with the day to day operations of the port. They certainly haven't
> done so w.r.t. any of the other ports.

That's good to hear.

> The biggest issue I believe is just ensuring that there is enough commitment
> to see the port through to completion (i.e. both done and high quality). This
> makes sense from the point of view of the Eclipse project as a whole, but to
> be blunt, the reason why it's important to *me* is that, I and several of the
> people who work with me are probably going to have to spend a non-trivial
> amount of time helping the people who are involved in the Mac port (and
> potentially working on it ourselves). I really need to believe that this is
> going to be worth the effort and it seems to me that if we can't even get a
> group together who will claim to make a commitment to doing it and name
> somebody to lead the effort, then it's likely not going to be good enough. I
> could be wrong, but that's the way I see it.

Actually, I find your concern very reassuring.  In previous emails it was
mentioned that OTI would not be providing support for a Mac port.  My
concern was that the overhead you get by adding a steering committee to a
project wouldn't be offset by the benefits provided by that steering
committee.  In this case, if PMC approval means that members of the SWT team
will be more likely to participate, it may be worth it.

Picking a team lead at this point isn't as important as you believe it is.
I have seen lots of projects that start out with lots of enthusiasm and
voting that go completely no where.  Cruise through SourceForge sometime and
see how many projects are actually active.  There are lots of projects with
no code at all in their repositories.

Besides, how would we pick someone this early anyway?  Do you know who I am?
Hell, no.  Maybe I'm full of it.  You won't know until I share my knowledge
through discussions and code I've written.  Our chances of electing the
right guy for the job right now are very low.

I strongly encourage everyone interested in working on the Mac port to hack
around, maybe get a button or something to work.  If you have a particularly
productive day, post a link to the code on the list and share it.
Participate in the technical discussions.  That way we'll get to learn who's
who and what they are capable of.  Remember, all Open Source projects are
meritocracies.

> The actual "approval of the PMC" in this instance is likely to equate to "McQ
> thinks that they will succeed", since it doesn't seem like there would be any
> business reasons why the PMC wouldn't want it to happen. [*sigh*. standard
> disclaimers apply: I am not a PMC member.]

If I can call you McQ, you can call me Mo.  :-)

To get an Open Source project going you need to kick it off by having at
least a good chunk of working code.  The current SWT code base is a good
start, but more than that and the little BlackMoon example needs to be ready
before going all out.  Without at least the Widget hierarchy and Events in
place, the project would be total chaos try to manage in an Open Source
manner.  (The chaos comes from having many different developers from many
different backgrounds and limited communication facilities.  Without
something in place to lead the way, everyone will go off in a hundred
different directions at once.)

Here's my plan.  Once we get HelloWorld5 working at 100% with a clean
design, I think the project will have all of the show stopping issues
addressed (see Andre's past emails for the list).  It will then be time get
utilize a CVS repository because it will then be possible to turn individual
developers loose on trying to get the controlexamples and the other sample
applications to work.

Did you buy that Mac yet?  :-)

-Mo