> -----Original Message-----
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Wednesday, January 19, 2000 10:01 AM
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: [REBOL] Openletter to Rebol HQ. Re:
> Just another thought, re: platform development, resources, and general
> conquer-the-world strategy. Adopting some kind of open
> source strategy, at least for /Core, would aid in gaining reach, and
> would avoid having to make calls like "do we work on /View, or do we
> make /Core run on the PalmPsionYoyodyne5000?"
Hi, well I understand Rebol HQ position on this but would suggest a
50%-open-source strategy to Rebol HQ. There are now some people trying to
develop real-world-applications with Rebol, applications to earn some money
with (at the moment at least from the generated output).
These people have a strong interest in getting Rebol/Core is good as
possible. I'm sure a lot of them are quite good C/C++ hackers (I am ;-))
and know how to debug code. Having a look at the Rebol/Core size I estimate
that the source-code is about 50K to 100K LOC, which is handle able.
How about the idea to include some external developers on an open-source
model into the development process? This means these people get the
source-code (perhaps signing an NDA), helping Rebol HQ to get the problems
they face solved and returning the results. Rebol HQ would have a look at
the presented solution and will integrate it into the main Rebol/Core tree,
perhaps with some modifications.
Rebol HQ will gain some free development resources, better QA. The
motivation to do this work for external people is to get their own project
pushed ahead as fast as possible.
> I'm all in favor of keeping some kind of tight control over QA,
> validation, versioning,
> etc. in order to maintain strict portability and good
> quality, but Rebol (the corp)
> could do that while still co-opting volunteer development
> effort through some kind of open source policy.
Yep, that's the way to go!
Robert M. Muench, Karlsruhe, Germany
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