Anton Tagunov wrote:
Hi, gang!
I'm Anton Tagunov, a committer with Avalon and Excalibur apache projects. I'm afraid I have not been much active withing these projects lately, but I've still got the commit priviliges and an active apache account.
Welcome.
I have a full understanding of current situation @fop: 0_20_2 branch has been frozen and all efforts have been directed at reacheing 1.0 release. On the other hand there has not been a release for quite a while. The only thing available to users is 0.20.5. And I do know that a massive refactoring has happened on the path to 1.0. And I do know that 0.20.5 code is a bit messy which in the beginning caused the refactoring.
Well, thats not the full picture. Refactoring was started because it is too difficult to implement keep-* properties into the maintenance code because of it architecture. Hence a new architecture was thought up and hey presto: work begins on 1.0.
However, being practicle we (I work for Deutsche Bank now) definetely need fop NOW. We do use 0.20.5. And we do have local patches for it. I feel these patches may be of a certain value to others too. Also I would also like to leverage public review available with open source. Besides we do have at least several patches against 0.20.5 flying around cvs.
What a small world. My company is working with Deutsche bank (London) on a project involving FOP. At the moment they are our only customer who still work with FOP. Most of our customers must have XEP to get keep-* properties. This is the one area that FOP really falls down on. If FOP had keep-* properties it would be used much more. That is why we must focus our energies on the redesign.
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The mantra of 0.20.6 would be: no new features, not much labor, go for low-hanging fruit and fix what is easy to fix and for what patches are already available.
That should be relatively easy. Piece of cake.
In a way I agree with you, and it looks like you will be taking on most of the work for yourself, and thus minimising the distraction from HEAD development. But I would much rather you concentrated on HEAD. Doing more development of a frozen architecture is only going to encourage more users for a dead code base.
On the upside FOP project which has not had releases for quite a while while gains some more visibility and showes it is alive. 0.20.6 announcements will be accompanied with a big fat comment that it is just a bug-fix and the real paradize is expected with 1.0.
1.0 isnt a real paradise, more like a 0.3. Just 0.20 plus keep-* properties. Well, thats the goal. In reality theres going to be some regression on 0.20.x functionality.
I do understand the nature of software development. I do understnad you're at 1.0-dev. I honestly hope some day I will find enought time and enery to dig into that. But being practical this is what I can offer fop community right now: assistance in 0.20.6 release. Low-hanging fruit. Light bug fixing.
I have to say I think I'm against doing a 0.20.6. I dont like being negative toward someone who wants to improve the code, but I think its for the best if 1.0 stands a chance. And I know whats it like not having much time, most of the other committers are in the same boat. Yet we have all made at least some contributions towards the 1.0 effort. I would like to see you doing the same.
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Chris
