SourceForge this beast (Re: call for volunteers)

[imap at chesapeake.net]

All very good points.   Along these lines, I would like to mention
that http://sourceforge.net is totally impressive and they seem to have 
solved alot of the open source development problems.  They service over 
10000 projects...  Their blurb:

SourceForge is a free service to Open Source developers offering easy
access to the best in CVS, mailing lists, bug tracking, message
boards/forums, task management, site hosting, permanent file archival,
full backups, and total web-based administration.

With all due respect for the UMN for their facilitation of the project,
SourceForge seems to be well suited for the task and they seem to
have this thing "canned" to the point where it doesnt make sense 
to "wing it" if there is something better that will allow us to 
collaborate *better* with less effort.

Over the last 3-4 minor revs of software, I have forgotten some of
the subtle changes of syntax in mapfiles, symbol files, etc.  making an 
upgrade problematic.  I dont think these changes are actually documented
anywhere (except in Steve's head ;) At the very least, much needed is a 
change log that describes the changes between the versions for our own 
sanity ;)

Definitely needed,  a formal way to track bugs, test, and grow the 
application.   

Regards,

Chris Stuber (mapsurfer)
Silicon Mapping Solutions Inc
(410)257-3187



Marc Jacquin wrote:
> 
> Hi folks,
> 
> This is a very interesting problem in terms of Software Engineering. How to
> maintain a software shared by a lot of people ? From what I know, only the
> documentation is not up to date. But, when you have to adapt MapServer to
> your own environment, how to keep tracks of your own changes and integrate
> them into the original source code ? How to follow the version evolutions ?
> 
> >From my point of view I had to make some changes in the 3.something code to
> make it re-entrant and I have not found time since I talk to Steve a couple
> of weeks ago to identify and give him the updates. Promised, I will.
> 
> But can most of MapServer users spend more time than they do on debugging,
> updating and give Steve the feedback ? How to organize, validate and keep
> track of the changes ?
> 
> I guess that Frank Warmerdam could help us. He is now leading the
> remotesensing.org projects and OSIM is a good example. They surely faced the
> same problems.
> 
> And let's give Steve the rest he deserves, we should create a Board
> Committee deciding and validating (and managing) the updates
> (software,version,documentation).
> 
> In the meantime, do we have a 'Powered by MapServer' logo ?
> 
> Finally, most of the people around the Geoweb are starting to compare their
> product to MapServer, or trying to compete with ...
> 
> Marc
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-mapserver-users at lists.gis.umn.edu
> [mailto:owner-mapserver-users at lists.gis.umn.edu]On Behalf Of Stephen
> Lime
> Sent: Friday, October 20, 2000 2:42 PM
> To: morissette at dmsolutions.on.ca
> Cc: mapserver-users at lists.gis.umn.edu
> Subject: Call for volunteers!
> 
> Go ahead and blame the U. Eductation is a role I think they can fill better
> than anyone. It's even hard for me to write ample documentation because I'm
> too close to the code and often gloss over important details. I think your
> suggestions are an excellent idea.
> 
> I've certainly got enough demo stuff to work from with the "main" demo and
> more importantly the test suite. So is there anyone out there willin to take
> this on? Other projects have successfully implemented this so I see no
> reason the MapServer can't given it's install base is more than 200 sites
> now. I think a demo and doc CVS site that parallels the dev site would be
> great and I'll certainly get that going.
> 
> If your interested, please let me know! Thanks!
> 
> Steve
> 
> >>> Daniel Morissette <morissette at dmsolutions.on.ca> 10/20/00 00:24 AM >>>
> Steve,
> 
> The attached message shows a problem that is unfortunately too common
> with new MapServer users: lots of people that try using MapServer for
> the first time run into problems with obsolete demo files (or lack of
> troubleshooting help, or FAQ, or ???).  A few of them send a question to
> the list, but too many probably go away just because they can't get the
> demo running.
> 
> The same happened to me when I first tried MapServer... I had to fix up
> the demo that I downloaded before I could get a map... took me only a
> few minutes because I'm used to reverse-engineering... but the average
> GIS person will just give up and download/try another package.
> 
> This message is not to blame you or UMN... I am in the same situation
> with the PHP stuff (the GMap PHP demo on our FTP site is not in sync
> with the software: it dates from May!).  I would like to suggest
> something, but before sending a message out on the list I wanted to get
> youropinion.
> 
> Since we (as developers) are already too busy with implementing stuff
> and fixing bugs, and writing demos and tutorials is not a very good use
> of our time, I would like to suggest that we build a team of 2 or 3
> power users to be responsible for the maintenance/testing of demos and
> tutorials on various platforms.
> 
> We would inform these individuals of new features as we implement them
> and they would regularily update their copy of MapServer from the CVS
> source (every week or so), test the new features by updating the
> "official" demos and write new demos/tutorials/documentation showing the
> new features if necessary.
> 
> When a MapServer release happens, they would be responsible of releasing
> a new set of demos in sync with the software.
> 
> The biggest problem is probably to find someone to take the lead of that
> team since we've all got enough on our plate already.  Hopefully if we
> send a note to the list someone will volounteer.
> 
> What do you think?
> --
> ------------------------------------------------------------
>  Daniel Morissette             morissette at dmsolutions.on.ca
>                http://www.dmsolutions.on.ca/
> ------------------------------------------------------------
>   Don't put for tomorrow what you can do today, because if
>       you enjoy it today you can do it again tomorrow.