[Info-vax] Open Source on OpenVMS - A Progress Report

[BillPedersen]

Trying to get this thread back on track a bit.  Not that I do not
appreciate the issues of incompatible communications and can
sympathize with those that have problems.

On Oct 19, 3:08 am, hel... at astro.multiCLOTHESvax.de (Phillip Helbig---
remove CLOTHES to reply) wrote:
>
> Make sure that anyone interested in non-HP VMS software has to look in
> one, and only one, place.  That is the main issue.  Once that is solved,
> the others will follow.
>

I am coming to the conclusion that having pointers to the locations of
software is the best we might be able to consider as a starting
point.  Along these lines I am currently recommending and pushing
everyone who has software available for OpenVMS to post information on
OpenVMS.org.  The site has a page devoted to Open Source as well as
Commercial and Freeware.  I believe we need to push this so it is as
complete as possible with as much information as possible.

I must admit this week though pointed out a problem with depending on
a site with little backup as far as infrastructure.  Ken Farmer's
server died and he was unable to attend to it for a couple days.
Along the way we need to work with Ken to bolster his infrastructure
in some fashion.  No ideas how this might happen but it needs to be
addressed if we want to look like we practice what we preach.

> If no-one with more time, money, resources etc volunteers, I might
> consider volunteering to maintain a one-stop--shop website.  Of course,
> this makes sense only if (almost) everyone agrees to always have the
> most up-to-date, stable versions of the corresponding packages there.
>

In Hunter's reply to some discussions along these lines he outlined
his QA efforts.  I believe these sorts of things need to be pushed
back to the owner of the software or the person taking over the QA
effort more or less needs to start considering themselves the owner,
at least for the distribution aspects.  I believe the actions taken by
Hunter were laudable if not above and beyond the call, but I can not
see someone taking that on now unless they also then either take
responsibility or get some sort of compensation themselves, i.e. you
can go to the author and do this work or you can go to the packager
and pay him for his "packaged" version with build procedures and
documentation and whatever else he puts in the package.

>
> I think a coordinator could be found if a) all involved agree on the
> goals and b) the coordinator himself also agrees.

I think we need to get the pointers to the locations of the packages
in place first.

As we move forward we can work to get other resources in place to
support additional development and hosting efforts. There are a few
possibilities here but none that are ready for implementation.  There
might be the potential, for instance, for a centralized development
environment which could be shared and supported by the OpenVMS
community.  Such a site might then attract sufficient interest to
encourage folks to move their discussions and development to this
central site.  Without this "carrot" I am not sure there would be the
necessary magnetism available to move people from the various forums I
have discussed previously.  Even with this enticement I am not sure it
would then focus everyone on that site.

I appreciate all the comments and enthusiasm of people on this thread
and hope we can use it to move this project forward.

Thanks,

Bill.