On 5/7/06, Peter Harrison <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Will Glass-Husain wrote:
>
> We've discussed this on the list before. My take -- Velocity is a
> mature product, with a released version in use lots of places. For 1.5
> we focused on bug fixes (and improvements in error reporting,
> integration, etc) and it's pretty stable. There's really no important
> bugs left that haven't been solved-- Look at JIRA and look at the wiki
> -- there's only a handful of trivial (if subtle) syntax bugs left.
> (there's an irritating problem with including macros in parsed files
> too, but it's arguable whether that's a bug or design issue).
It is interesting that key infrastructure such as Velocity suffers from
a lack of resource. My feeling is that I would prefer to pay for
Velocity if it meant that a key piece of development infrastructure
would get more resource.
This is quite common really - people have day jobs that come before
their OSS projects. I am not saying take it closed source (obviously),
just that developers/companies who use velocity could perhaps find go
some way to funding its development.
Velocity is mission critical for me - as is several other OSS projects.
I can't necessarily contribute to them all in terms of code, as I am
President of the New Zealand Open Source Society - so my free time is
kinda sparse. However, I can make a business case for contributing to a
project that is helping deliver end user software.
This is how i've found/made time to do 60-80% of the open source work
that i've done. I'm a bit of a hacker and do take some interest in
these things, but primarily i'm here for practical and, more often
than not, business purposes.
> User support is pretty good -- the lists have far more activity than a
> classic "dormant" project. And developers are still around. (Myself,
> Nathan, Henning are often present on the lists). The major frustration
> continues to be release - understandably many users expect a released
> version and we haven't delivered it in a timely manner.
From a commercial point of view it is unsettling when we see
functionality like the set null issue remain in the released code base
for years. I am on the lists, so I know there is activity and discussion
going on; as you say, it the lack of a release since 1.4 that means
visibility of progress is low. Even a beta 1.5 would be good.
hmm. something i haven't really considered... i may be able to find
a day or two in June to roll a beta release. i haven't released the
core Velocity engine before, but it can't be too much harder than
VelocityTools, especially as a beta.
> Regardless of
> this fact, there's many users using version 1.4 and some using
> pre-release 1.5. The software hasn't decayed, it's only gotten better.
> I don't feel competitive. Everyone has to make their own decisions
> about whether and how to use Velocity.
True. I'm a very keen supporter of Velocity, and I really do appreciate
what the team on Velocity have done. I'm really just talking from a
devils advocate point of view - that from a new users point of view
having no release since 1.4 looks like its a dead project.
> Like Nathan, I also feel bad about the lack of a release. A week of
> work and it would be done. But when I have my entire year's salary
> hanging onto the delivery of a consulting project in May and June, it's
> hard to set that time aside. The other committers also have significant
> work and family committments. (what's with all this family stuff,
> anyway?) I'm reluctant to say anything about timing in public, since
> I've been wrong before. But I'm betting that I'll have that week in the
> summer - maybe when I go on vacation :-)
I don't expect people doing this in their own time to be held to
anything. I certainly don't expect anyone to feel bad about not having
the time. Businesses need some certainty though - so perhaps we need a
wider discussion about how we can allow people to commit some time
financially speaking (aka find a sponsor who uses this technology).
I know of a few off hand :)
ah, a few years ago this idea would've excited me, but i've since
added a house, wife, and kid to the picture. freelance work doesn't
have the security/stability i want right now, and the rest of life
steals the time i'd need to do it on the side. :(
Regards,
Peter
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