<html><head><meta name="qrichtext" content="1" /></head><body style="font-size:9pt;font-family:Sans Serif">
<p>On <span style="color:#ff0000">Thursday</span> 22 <span style="color:#ff0000">of</span> February 2007 21:23:18 Michael Barton wrote:</p>
<p></p>
<p><span style="color:#008000">> I know I promised not to add more to this general discussion, but there</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#008000">> seems to be some potentially serious misunderstanding here.</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#008000">></span></p>
<p><span style="color:#008000">> I'm speaking for myself, but am copying the GRASS Project Steering</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#008000">> Committee, because most comments from PSC members I've seen seem to agree.</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#008000">></span></p>
<p><span style="color:#008000">> If you sincerely want to contribute to making GRASS better, including</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#008000">> research into new code structures, this should be done within the existing</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#008000">> GRASS cvs, subversion server, and/or WIKI. In that way, your contribution</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#008000">> becomes transparent to the GRASS developer and user community, and ALL</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#008000">> developers with an interest in your work would have the opportunity see</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#008000">> your code and collaborate. From all the comments I've seen, such</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#008000">> collaborative work is welcomed.</span></p>
<p></p>
<p>I'd <span style="color:#ff0000">like</span> to <span style="color:#ff0000">be</span> my <span style="color:#ff0000">work</span> part <span style="color:#ff0000">of</span> GRASS <span style="color:#ff0000">code</span> <span style="color:#ff0000">as</span> <span style="color:#ff0000">alternative</span> to <span style="color:#ff0000">current</span> <span style="color:#ff0000">core</span> <span style="color:#ff0000">libraries</span> for module <span style="color:#ff0000">implementation</span>. <span style="color:#ff0000">Unfortunatelly</span> a <span style="color:#ff0000">way</span> I <span style="color:#ff0000">want</span> to <span style="color:#ff0000">approach</span> to it's <span style="color:#ff0000">specification</span> <span style="color:#ff0000">and</span> <span style="color:#ff0000">modelling</span> <span style="color:#ff0000">need</span>s <span style="color:#ff0000">some</span> more <span style="color:#ff0000">advanced</span> <span style="color:#ff0000">project</span> management <span style="color:#ff0000">environment</span> <span style="color:#ff0000">than</span> <span style="color:#ff0000">just</span> <span style="color:#ff0000">wiki</span> <span style="color:#ff0000">and</span> <span style="color:#ff0000">mailing</span> list. Such <span style="color:#ff0000">an</span> <span style="color:#ff0000">integrated</span> <span style="color:#ff0000">advanced</span> <span style="color:#ff0000">environment</span> <span style="color:#ff0000">is</span> <span style="color:#ff0000">Trac</span> http://trac.edgewall.org/ which I'm using. You may consider this as another invention from my side even it may seem that I criticise a way you are working on GRASS, it is NOT. I don't tell you that you may use different tools for project management. I just tell, that for this kind of project and for this stage of its development is more confortable and transparent to use separate wiki and other tools. When all ideas included there gets some compat shape it can be tranfered to GRASS wiki. Futhermore when there will be some code it is no problem to mirror my repository to GRASS one or vice versa.</p>
<p></p>
<p><span style="color:#008000">> However, if you want to see if you can create a NEW GIS and do NOT want to</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#008000">> work in the GRASS project environment, then your project should not use the</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#008000">> name GRASS. Beyond any murky copyright and other legal issues, this is a</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#008000">> courtesy to both the GRASS development team and users. There is no reason</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#008000">> for you to use GRASS in the name of a piece of software that has no</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#008000">> connection with the GRASS project--beyond telling us that you are doing it</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#008000">> and inviting GRASS developers to help you. This does not prevent you from</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#008000">> contributing code to the *real* GRASS project at any time in the</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#008000">> future...and I would hope that you decide to do so.</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#008000">></span></p>
<p><span style="color:#008000">> I continue to assume that you have the best of intentions to create an</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#008000">> applied thesis project that could potentially make a valuable contribution</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#008000">> to open source GIS software. However, on the face of it, it *appears* like</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#008000">> you are trying to hijack the GRASS name and 20+ year reputation--and some</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#008000">> GRASS developers if you can--to capture an existing user base and give</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#008000">> cachet to your startup project that has nothing to do with the GRASS</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#008000">> project. At the same time you offer nothing back to the *real* GRASS</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#008000">> project, suggesting that it simply be abandoned in favor of what you you</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#008000">> are planning because "it is too old fashioned to keep it in development in</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#008000">> the current programming style". Such an endeavor flies in the face of the</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#008000">> ethics of the broader open source community. If my assumption about your</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#008000">> actual intentions are correct, you will not want to appear to be working in</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#008000">> this way and I would urge you to rethink how you are approaching this.</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#008000">></span></p>
<p></p>
<p>Naming a project is a smallest thing about this discussion. I don't realize that using this TNGed name is such a big deal since there are a lot of -tng, Ya (Yet Another), "is not" and other names in open source. I'm sorry for that. Whould be calling it GAL (GIS Abstraction Layer) with possibility to rename it to (GRASS Abstraction Layer) when joined to GRASS repository acceptable to everone?</p>
<p></p>
<p>-- </p>
<p>Bc. Radek BartoĊ</p>
<p></p>
<p><span style="color:#ff0000">Faculty</span> <span style="color:#ff0000">of</span> <span style="color:#ff0000">Information</span> Technology</p>
<p>Brno University <span style="color:#ff0000">of</span> Technology</p>
<p></p>
<p>E-mail: <span style="color:#ff0000">xbarto</span>33@stud.fit.vutbr.cz</p>
<p>Web: http://blackhex.no-ip.org</p>
<p>Jabber: blackhex@jabber.cz</p>
<p></p>
</body></html>