Sorry to drag this thread up again from the bowels of cyberspace, but I think the idea is very promising. If this project seems like it will be done well, I should be able to donate some web-space to the cause.
There are a number of issues that must be sorted out first and I am sure people will have their own viewpoints: o Licenses. At the risk of starting a religious war, how should the components be licensed? I think using LGPL is probably the answer as it may encourage companies to use the components and perhaps submit improvements. If GPL is used, then it will impact projects which also must use proprietary components. o Usability. One of the biggest barriers for people adopting open source is how difficult it is to set up and configure. The project should aim to zap these problems by producing first class documentation and examples. I'm thinking along the lines of UML, javadoc, manuals for compiling, extending, administrating etc. Of course there is also the potential for revenue streams from printed documentation and distributions. o Re-use of existing component libraries etc. As other people on the list have protested, why re-invent the wheel? Of course, life is rarely that simple. Using other component libraries etc. is likely to only be possible if they follow the same standards, licenses, philosophy etc. My experience has led me to believe that software tends to be less re-usable than we pretend it is. o Professional quality. It should be an objective that the library is production quality. I'm fed up with hearing that free software is bad quality. This misunderstanding comes from peoples expectation that free software behaves like software you pay for. The library should be developed not only with technical objectives, but should also consider the needs of its users. i.e. How can we make improvements without breaking the systems our users have developed? Users shouldn't need to search through mailing lists to understand how to configure a component in a fairly standard way. o Development methodology. It would be nice if the core library was developed using something like extreme programming. With free software, people tend to make ad-hoc contributions, so that would have to be taken into account. However key concepts such as iterative development, release planning, user stories, unit testing and refactoring should be possible. To me all of the above seems important regardless of what features the component library would contain. I think the project itself would be defined more by such standards, than by the contributed code. So, should we begin something on sourceforge? Anyone thought of a good name? Thanks for your time. -- Peter Beck BEng (hons) - Managing Director, Electrostrata Ltd. http://www.electrostrata.com --+-+-+-+-- Experts in e-business and e-commerce ------------------------------------------------------- This sf.net email is sponsored by:ThinkGeek Welcome to geek heaven. http://thinkgeek.com/sf _______________________________________________ JBoss-user mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/jboss-user
