On Sat, 20 Dec 2003, Tim O'Brien wrote:

> Enough people profess interest in using this product, but only a few
> committers (myself and Gary) actually go about the business of
> contributing.  Believe it or not, I think that components get lost in
> the signal to noise ratio of the Jakarta Commons development mailing list.

To a certain extent, I agree with you. However, I think things would get
worse rather than better if Codec moves off to A-C and has its own lists,
etc.

Here at J-C, Codec (and all of the other active components) gets a good
deal of exposure. The discussions are out there in front of a substantial
audience of Java developers. Most may not contribute, but you have no way
of telling how many people *read* the posts. That is really very valuable,
even though it might not seem so at first blush.

If, at some point, I decide I need a Codec like component, I know exactly
where I'll turn to get one. I know, from following the posts, that I'll
get a component I can rely on. I'll also have a certain degree of trust in
it from knowing the people who have worked on it.

If Codec moves off on its own, and I no longer see the discussions, the
commits, or the bug reports, then I won't have that same trust in it. I'm
not so interested in a Codec component right now that I would subscribe to
yet another mailing list just to see those discussions.

Now when I *do* need a Codec component, it's certainly likely that I would
look at A-C if there's no longer one at J-C. But if the committers to it
are now disjoint from those remaining at J-C, my trust level is lower. Now
it's not much different to me than an SF equivalent, except that it's at
Apache (which is not to be sniffed at, of course).

Anyway, all of the above is a rather long-winded way of saying that I
don't think Codec moving out of J-C and into A-C is a good idea. As some
others have said before me, I think J-C has a great deal of value in just
staying together, wherever that might take us.

--
Martin Cooper


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