About partecipation into the development of ISAR

["Roberto A. Foglietta" <roberto.foglietta@gmail.com>]

Hi all,

 I wish to express my opinion about the participation into development
of ISAR hoping that this will help people to focus on things that
really matter, especially considering that ISAR is a open-source
project that is leveraged by business by Ilbers GmbH and then used by
some other companies which have a mutual interest in having some
benefits in adopting it.

 First of all, it is important to notice that ISAR is not a project as
big as the Linux kernel and does not involve thousands of people.
Driving a hugely massive project like the Linux kernel requires strict
rules of engagement otherwise no any tool will scale up enough to deal
with varieties.

 This means that adopting the same strict rules of engagement used for
such a big project is counterproductive because it does not leverage
all the possibilities. It does not seem an important problem because
after all, ISAR is a niche product used by professionals but someone
might hope that this will change in future. However, in the best
optimistic forecasts, it will never be as huge as the kernel, so it
will never require such strict rules.

 This brings to us in evaluating a more flexible way of contribution:

 1 - patch over e-mail are the default and prefered way of contribution
 2 - git repository in fork are also a very easy and quickto integrate
sources of contribution
 3 - github allows to open tickets (issue), to have a wiki, a
discussion board, etc.
 4 - github allows people to comment on the code of the patches, in line!

Now, all of these tools have benefits and also side-effects. Let examine them:

 1 - having a single way of contribution simplifies the process which
makes sense for those who drive an open source project in their spare
time but ISAR - fortunately - has people that are paid to develop the
project, so they can also deal with other ways of contribution.

 2 - git as a way of contribution cannot be neglected and it is a very
powerful tool to merge among different projects carried on by
different people and organisations. Definitely, git cannot be left
behind as a contributing way.

 3 - github tickets (issue) are very useful to keep an organised track
of the development. We might debate about the convenience of Ilbers
GmbH in keeping it in public but cannot overlook the important
contribution that github and more in general - project management
tools - brings into a business driven development. Who opposes this,
sasy that many successful companies are wrong in adopting these kinds
of tools.

 4 - among many ways of commenting code - pure text email with 80
columns breaks - is not the best way of dealing with it even if it
seems very "hacker" and we are used to it since a long time ago.

 The ISAR project is probably marginal for Ilbers GmbH and this
explains the reason to leave the project management to the good will
and to the people's sentiments of a public Google Group m-list. Even
if playing "hackers" seems cool, it is not so much when it impairs
business and moreover there is a world outside there to conquer for
those who are open-minded...

 My best wishes for a productive 1492,
-- 
Roberto A. Foglietta
+49.176.274.75.661
+39.349.33.30.697