Hi all:
I think OpenCores' strategy about OpenRISC is clear: they want full
control of what people download and install, and of all user and
developer communications too. As recently discussed, this goes as far as
forcing the usage of their e-mail lists upon developers if necessary. I
heard they tried to trademark the term 'OpenRISC' in the past, but I'm
not certain about this point. They will only make concessions, like
removing the registration wall from one source repository, when forced
by external threats. Given that a private company is behind the site,
this is not surprising.
I must admit that OpenCores has't been that bad in the past. However, I
still believe that it's worth opposing that underlying strategy, for the
good of the OpenRISC project, which is currently rather stagnated in my
opinion. This could end up like OpenOffice and LibreOffice, or hopefully
more like the Linux kernel model.
The MinSoC project has come up with a good solution: Raul Fajardo has a
script that automatically downloads and installs the necessary
components from different places, by cherry-picking the versions that
work well together.
Mirroring source code repositories to a centralised repository means
effort and gives up control, so I think that such an automated script is
the way to go.
I have written a script along that line for the purposes of a nightly
build, but it can easily be repurposed. It's called orbuild and it's here:
https://github.com/rdiez/orbuild/tree/master/Scripts/Projects/OpenRISC
By default the build system downloads several repositories from
different sites, builds and installs them together. All in parallel,
only what's needed, and with an HTML report at the end about which
components failed to build (with separate build logs). Support for Peter
Gavin's toolchain is already there.
The main advantage with that approach is that it's easy to switch to
another version or fork, you just need to adjust the URL the script is
downloading a component from. An alternative provider (like another web
site) can 'git clone' the orbuild system, change a URL inside it and
offer a different flavour of OpenRISC without the costs of mirroring or
forking many components.
<dream mode on>
I would love to see some www.librerisc.org wiki, where everything is
public without a registration wall, where there is a mix of people from
several companies and volunteers, without annoying rules for submitting
the very few patches that come in at all.
Individual projects would retain their upstream status without a single
entity deciding which one is allowed to be part of "OpenRISC" or not. If
an upstream maintainer no longer has time to properly look after a
component, it could easily be replaced with a fork at the press of a
button, without any wrangling of backstage interests.
<dream mode off>
An automated download and build script could help realise that goal. It
doesn't have to be me or my script; in fact, I don't have the time
myself for a greater involvement, so other people would need to step in.
Regards,
Ruben
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