Re: [Gnu-arch-users] Bounty for tla on win32

[Tom Lord]

    > From: John F Meinel Jr <address@hidden>

    > So instead, I'm willing to put my money where my mouth is and offer to 
    > give some money[2] for people to have the time to work on it. I use 
    > cygwin all the time, so Leroy's version is fine for me. your port would 
    > probably also be fine if someone wanted to help him port tar to the 
    > hackerlab libraries.

and you add:

    > [2] Since it is just me, it's not like I can hire a full-time
    > programmer, but I am willing to put up a few hundred
    > dollars. Obviously, this would be more of an iterative thing
    > than a lump-sum payment, since I would prefer to pay as things
    > work, rather than pay all up front, and I'm sure whoever helps
    > doesn't just want to wait until it's all done to get paid.

Thank you.

I suggest that you also solicit "matching grants" -- other people and
companies can add to your bounty.  This is a great and just way to get
work done on free software.  It's not "fully general" -- it won't
solve all R&D needs -- but when it works it works.

Please be careful to structure the offer to not wind up with people
contributing redundent labor.  That is: a bounty should be structured
so that someone is officially granted the responsibility to do the
work and take the reward rather than having 10 people race to do the
work, wasting the time of 9 people.


    > I would be happy to provide bug reports and listings of my current 
    > problems with the cygwin port. I also could help some with the 
    > development, I just don't have a lot of time to work on it. Also, I 
    > would like the development to be done in the open, and as compatible 
    > with mainline tla as possible. Then depending on what changed, maybe 
    > some of it could be merged into mainline tla.


I strongly encourage that "working with Tom to get this into the
mainline" is part of the requirements of the project.   Obviously I
have selfish reasons for that but beyond those I think it makes the
result substantially more valuable to you.   

Along those lines, I generally ask people who embark on this kind of
thing to also pay me a bit, too, when it comes down to having to spend
time reviewing changes and integrating them into the mainline.
Because you are just a private individual putting up just a small
amount of money (in absolute terms -- I'm not questioning your
generosity), and because this particular feature is aligned with my
own goals, I'm _not_ asking you to pay me as well (unless you get some
serious matching grants).  I only mean to point out that projects such
as what you propose wind up using some of my labor too, and typically
take away from other priorities.  So, it's appropriate to give me some
consideration as well.

Go, man, go.  I hope your bounty succeeds.

-t