Roger Bishop Jones wrote:
...
We could have one directory for such things, with
subdirectories for each "contribution" and some rules for
these to permit a uniform and simple way of installing
whatever selection a user wants to make use of, and then
have different top level directories for things which don't
fit into that.
Perhaps one directory for "maths_eq"-like contributions, one
for contributions in the form of patches, and another for
other kinds of things. The first two having some rules to
provide uniform installation, the last consisting of
contributions each of which makes up its own rules.
That sounds flexible enough. Does this all go into one repository? (I
don't know what is possible or most suitable using Mercurial on google
code.)
Personally, I am happy with GPL (2 or 3).
Well, so far it looks like GPL3 on google with mercurial.
GPL 3 would rule out the ProofPower code base as that is GPL 2. GPL 2
and 3 are 'incompatible': http://www.gnu.org/licenses/rms-why-gplv3.html
So, whilst ProofPower is GPL 2, my preference would actually be GPL 2.
(Note ProofPower does not specify "any later version" regarding GPL.)
In fact, this may be an issue for the sort of contributions you are
talking about too. On the one hand, one could view ProofPower like a
compiler that processes theories and these theories could be viewed as
works in their own right, so they could have whatever licence the author
wants. On the other hand, one could view these theories as ML programs
that make calls to the ProofPower library of ML functions so would need
to be available under GPL 2:
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0-faq.html#IfLibraryIsGPL
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0-faq.html#LinkingWithGPL
That does not stop them also being made available under a 'compatible'
licence, i.e. one that is upstream from GPL 2 in the following diagram:
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/quick-guide-gplv3.html#new-compatible-licenses
Under the latter interpretation, which is probably the right one, I
don't think it would be possible to make the contributions available
under GPL 3 as it stands.
On google you can have a different licence for documentation,
one of the creative commons licences. Does anyone think that
would be a good idea?
I don't know much about the creative commons licence - what are the
benefits and drawbacks for documentation?
I have used Subversion on a few projects and found it too
inflexible. Without access to the Subversion repository
a number of things aren't possible.
(Simply being
connected to the internet doesn't necessarily solve
this: in my case, the Subversion server was only visible
from an internal company network.)
I don't understand the distinctions you are making here, and
think that I need to.
Whilst the
Subversion working copy is local to a machine, without
visibility of the repository I couldn't see the log of
previous commits, nor make any commits. Working on more
than one commit was a pain. (Sometimes, I found that a
particular enhancement required a logically separate
enhancement to be made first...) Fortunately the
Git-Subversion interface worked quite well and I was
able to use Git locally to prepare a series of commits
and upload them once I was connected to the Subversion
repository.
I'm not convinced that the problems you are experiencing
reflect what would happen if we had a properly set up
subversion repository.
For this I think you need to have the repository on a server
which runs a subversion service. Having a repository which
is visible across the network by other means is not the
same.
I have a subversion repository at rbjones.com, but cannot
provide a general service because rbjones.com is on a
virtual host so all access to the repository has to be
through my username.
Sorry, all I was saying is that when one doesn't have access to the
Subversion repository (for whatever reason), any operation that requires
access to the Subversion repository won't work, which includes various
operations that I would do normally during the course of development,
e.g. looking at the previous log messages or previous revisions or
making commits.
Wherever the repository is, or however it is set up, if you don't have
access, you can get stuck. Whilst a repository on Google Code would be
quite accessible, I do a lot of development on the move and wouldn't
even want to be dependent on an internet connection.
With a distributed VCS, you have your own local repository, so access is
not a problem.
Also I don't understand your commit problem, why was it
desirable to have a series of commits rather than just one?
If I'm making three separate changes that are totally unrelated, it's
better for these to be separate commits, in my view. For example, it is
easier for people to understand the changes if they're separated out.
Also, it would allow someone else to pull one of the changes into their
development without having to get all three.
Well you and Rob are both against subversion so we can do
Mercurial at google or Git at sourceforge, unless anyone
prefers some other host.
I think Rob prefers Mercurial, which I'm quite happy with too.
Both of these are blocked for Cuba, Iran, Libya, North
Korea, Sudan, Syria, does anyone think that important?
I haven't heard of anyone working on ProofPower in these countries...
Phil
_______________________________________________
Proofpower mailing list
Proofpower@lemma-one.com
http://lemma-one.com/mailman/listinfo/proofpower_lemma-one.com