Hi,
I'm an initial commiter to the Flex project. I'm listed in the Flex
Proposal under a different e-mail that I decided to change in order to
better separate interests.
If I was judging the future of Flex by the activity I've been seeing
today on this list, I'd say we're in for bright days ahead. Yet, apart
for some concerns, like code conventions and thoughts around commit and
review and on how code gets organized into branches, which to my eyes
are fundamental to get in very early, I see a lot of discussions going
around stuff that is somewhat inconsequential at this point, like what
should or should not be done first and what is and is not important
within the framework.
I think Alex has done a very good job explaining in the list, and out of
it, what Adobe is doing in order to bring the source code and JIRA
issues to Apache and also what will be in this first drop. He has
emphasized several times the importance of the testing suite and how
he'd wish for this to get in as soon as possible. We have to be aware
that major contributions to the framework will have to be done over an
extended period of time and that having tests in place for this is
mandatory. Also without the JIRA issues ported over, there's no way to
link their resolution to the actual code patches, which, depending on
how long that takes, could lead to more confusion. What I'm trying to
say is that while it is great to discuss all these issues and they are
all important, I feel it's a tad to early to go into such detail.
The other thing I believe we're missing the point here, is how Apache
projects work. We're no longer barking at someone's door trying to ask
for something to get done. We're actually the ones that have the power
to do it! In this perspective, strategy and roadmap are more
consequences than actual planning, as issues will get solved and
features added in the order that is more valued by the community. If
anyone of us feels strongly about something that should be fixed or
added to Flex, well, we can just go ahead and start doing it. After that
its a matter of convincing others that your development deserves to be
integrated. Focusing too much on strategy and planning can, actually, be
detrimental to these dynamics.
Best,
Rui
