Hi Chuck, and all. I agree about the hidden gem notion, and also on the improvements that could be made in terms of tutorials, better written instructions etc.
The problem everyone faces is that of time. I just read the intro to the Apache Attic it is for a "project has reached its end of life" I think it very sad if that it the case. I also note that the attic is not the complete "end of life" it may just be suspended animation. I am willing to try to find more time to try to breathe more life into it.. Just not entirely sure how much time I can make and what to do about it. Open to all concrete suggestions. Contact me directly if you want. I have no wish to get into a debate around the pros and cons of licensing models but personally am more than happy with the Apache way. Cheers, Ian On Wed, Oct 8, 2014 at 1:15 AM, Chuck Davis <[email protected]> wrote: > I just found the project a few weeks ago. I can't believe I've never > heard of it before. I've been a Java developer for 18 years and never > heard how to use ODF with Java until then. > > For me it is going to be essential in the near future. Adobe has > abandoned pdf on Linux (where ALL my development and much much of my > deployment takes place) and so I've made the decision to find another > reporting framework. And even on Windows platforms Adobe Reader is > nothing to brag about. So I was ecstatic to happen across the > project. > > Is there any way to make the Java world aware of the project? Can we > get an article in Java Magazine and other places Java developer > congregate? Why wasn't there a booth at JavaOne this year? (I wasn't > there so perhaps there WAS a booth but I don't suspect there was). > > To be honest, however, some instructions need to be put on the web > site. I spent many hours in the API documentation but was unable to > piece together how to use it. A gentleman named Rafael, however, put > a simple sample in a reply to my query. I haven't had a chance to > test it yet. The point is, to be usable there's going to have to be > some documentation added to the web site. It's incredibly easy to > create a document but setting the size, orientation, margins, tabs, > units, etc. is very difficult to understand. > > I've generated a report which I was able to open and format in AOO but > users are not going to want to open reports and format them -- they'll > want them ready to read and will want them to open automatically. > > In summary, the project has inestimable value but is lacking exposure > and tutorials. It's a well hidden gem. That's my $.02. > > On Tue, Oct 7, 2014 at 7:59 AM, Rob Weir <[email protected]> wrote: > > I think it is time to have a candid discussion about this project and > > what we want to do with it. > > > > On the positive side, we did have a release back in July. Also, we do > > seem to have users, as evident from the questions on the users list. > > > > But as a Mentor, I'm noting that we're in the habit of being late for > > IPMC reports, and appear to have not had any list discussions or code > > commits in a few months. We don't seem to be making progress towards > > graduation or growing the community. > > > > You can read more about the Attic here: > > > > http://attic.apache.org/ > > > > Anyone have thoughts on this? > > > > Note: moving to the Attic does not prevent us from then putting the > > codebase onto Github and maintaining it that way. This might make > > more sense for a project that has only 2 or 3 developers sporadically > > working on it. > > > > Regards, > > > > -Rob > -- Cheers, Ian C
