Too many open subjects

[Rui D. Silva]

Hi,

First of all, WOW! This list is a living proof of Flex's relevance in
today's web development scene! And the REAL community is still out there
waiting to jump in as soon as we start showing something going out the
door. Brace yourself, because this will be a roller-coaster ride! I'm
absolutely loving every single topic we are discussing and we're touching
in so many, so important things that will have major impacts on how this
project moves forward.

But, that's also the thing that worries me. We're leaving too many things
open without trying get to some sort of closure (which in Apache terms, I'd
say consists of a voting process). I understand that this is somewhat the
result of this initial boom of energy resulting from the creation of a new
project and that we want to get our main worries right in from the start. I
also understand that this will inevitably start to tone down as the project
progresses. There are, however, some subjects that I'd like to close down
as soon as possible, like the Subversion branching and naming strategies,
for instance. Should we have a vote on these?

Sorry if I'm sounding like I'm spoiling the fun, but I've suffered too much
from attention span issues in other situations too feel comfortable with so
many important things flying around.

Best,
Rui

[Peter Elst]

> But, that's also the thing that worries me. We're leaving too many things
> open without trying get to some sort of closure (which in Apache terms, I'd
> say consists of a voting process).


+1

Agreed, at the same time don't want to go crazy with dozens of voting
threads but would be good to start some for the key questions you've listed
(and have been discussed extensively) to get some consensus on that.

- Peter

[Michael Schmalle]

Hi Rui,

I am speaking for myself here and no others. I think the power of a  
community like Flex is one, by it's very nature and roots is a  
creative community grown from the Flash days.

Two, we all have are strengths and weaknesses. One of my weaknesses is  
SVN and the partial knowledge of it on an administration level. This  
means I cannot in good conscious even post a reply to branching issues  
and structure. I have to put my enthusiasm in things I know I'm good at.

I think the topics that have been brought up prove the broad spectrum  
of community we are dealing with. There is representation from all  
areas trying to nail down their domain.

I do agree that spending time on 30 threads and getting nowhere is a  
waste of all this initial energy.

For now I'm trying to outline things we are talking about on my blog,  
and yes people in the community are reading. We need to find a way as  
you said to get closure but I think all topics in discussion here are  
great because we are trying to tackle all spectrums of "getting this  
horse going" as quick as possible.

How to you suggest to get the class to stop and pay attention to the  
chalk board for these conclusions? I thought [VOTE] was for official  
things of the PMC members.


Mike

> Hi,
>
> First of all, WOW! This list is a living proof of Flex's relevance in
> today's web development scene! And the REAL community is still out there
> waiting to jump in as soon as we start showing something going out the
> door. Brace yourself, because this will be a roller-coaster ride! I'm
> absolutely loving every single topic we are discussing and we're touching
> in so many, so important things that will have major impacts on how this
> project moves forward.
>
> But, that's also the thing that worries me. We're leaving too many things
> open without trying get to some sort of closure (which in Apache terms, I'd
> say consists of a voting process). I understand that this is somewhat the
> result of this initial boom of energy resulting from the creation of a new
> project and that we want to get our main worries right in from the start. I
> also understand that this will inevitably start to tone down as the project
> progresses. There are, however, some subjects that I'd like to close down
> as soon as possible, like the Subversion branching and naming strategies,
> for instance. Should we have a vote on these?
>
> Sorry if I'm sounding like I'm spoiling the fun, but I've suffered too much
> from attention span issues in other situations too feel comfortable with so
> many important things flying around.
>
> Best,
> Rui
>
>

[Peter Elst]

> How to you suggest to get the class to stop and pay attention to the chalk
> board for these conclusions? I thought [VOTE] was for official things of
> the PMC members.
>


anyone can vote on [VOTE] threads AFAIK - the thing is that only the PPMC
members vote will be binding. It does still give a good indication about
where the consensus is going and hopefully the PPMC member votes reflect
that.

I think its a good way to come to some conclusion after a topic has had
enough discussion. Are non-PPMC members allowed to start [VOTE] threads?


- Peter

[Bertrand Delacretaz]

Hi,

On Fri, Jan 6, 2012 at 12:13 PM, Rui Silva <[hidden email]> wrote:
>...We're leaving too many things
> open without trying get to some sort of closure (which in Apache terms, I'd
> say consists of a voting process)...

Not necessarily...IMO the only real closure is writing and releasing
code that does what people meant to do.

You could vote for ages on big decisions, but if no one implements
them it's just a waste of time.

I'd suggest not to worry too much about this for now, this community
is just getting started so it seems normal to me that many ideas are
thrown in the air and only a few actually get acted on immediately.
There's not even any code to act on so far ;-)

Once our JIRA instance is up people can start creating issues in a
"wishlist" category, to make sure things don't fall through the
cracks. For now, committers could create a TODO file in svn, or a
website page, to keep track of such things.

The only thing that's really needed right now IMO is a rough roadmap
for the next 4-8 weeks - that could be discussed in a new thread where
people can suggest the 3-5 goals that they think are the most
important for that initial period. Then you ask for volunteers to
implement those things, and if no one steps up they just don't happen.

-Bertrand

[Rui D. Silva]

Bertrand,

> I'd suggest not to worry too much about this for now, this community
> is just getting started so it seems normal to me that many ideas are
> thrown in the air and only a few actually get acted on immediately.
> There's not even any code to act on so far ;-)
...
> -Bertrand

Suggestion accepted. I'll let things flow the way they usually do in these
projects and trust those who have more experience.

Rui

[Michael Schmalle]

Quoting Rui Silva <[hidden email]>:

> Bertrand,
>
>> I'd suggest not to worry too much about this for now, this community
>> is just getting started so it seems normal to me that many ideas are
>> thrown in the air and only a few actually get acted on immediately.
>> There's not even any code to act on so far ;-)
> ...
>> -Bertrand
>
> Suggestion accepted. I'll let things flow the way they usually do in these
> projects and trust those who have more experience.
>
> Rui
>
>

Rui,

I would also suggest that this is just healthy brainstorming that  
happens in any beginning of a project.

It's good to get it out now because once the code is here, it's work  
and we'll see how long the enthusiasm last. :)

There will be more responsibilities to the community soon. But at  
least we will have recorded in the sands of time what we thought our  
vision was in the beginning. Maybe on those days where we fell the  
drudge of a release looming and all we are doing is squashing bugs, we  
can come back to this month and go, hey this is why I am doing it, we  
wanted something that was forged with our new ideas.

Sappy hippy song over.

Mike