Re: [Swarm-Support] development priorities (was Re: Membership inSwarm Developmen Group)

[Paul Johnson]

glen e. p. ropella wrote:
> Marcus G. Daniels wrote:
>   
> > No, a foolish use of money would be to write yet another Swarm-like
> > thing, especially in the name of `original requirements'.
> >     
>
> Allrighty then!  So much for my opinion having an impact on the
> direction of the SDG.
>
>   
I don't even understand why this discussion is going on.  If somebody 
wants to do some work, go ahead.  Otherwise, not. 

I need Obj-C Swarm to do my work and will help to maintain it and keep 
it up to date and make RPMS and maintain the swarmapps-objc.  If people 
add stuff into Swarm, that's fine, as long as my things still work.  You 
could eliminate Windows as a platform, I would not care, and I don't 
care if people can write things in Java.  But I need the classic Swarm 
to run and I'm willing to keep trying to make it run.

Now, as for the claim that Swarm itself is over-engineered, I would 
respond this way. When I started with Swarm, before Marcus came on the 
scene, I could not get Swarm built in Linux. Building Swarm was a 
completely non-standard experience, and none of the GNU concepts of 
software packaging were used.  It would have been literally impossible 
to build an RPM of Swarm in those days.   Since Marcus came, I can build 
Swarm.  It is not over-engineered.  It is engineered to actually work 
and build.  And the design is clear enough so that people can come along 
and add things. 

I do agree with the idea that  it would be nice to have an R-like 
modular Swarm thing so that it would be easy to add in components.  Take 
a look at the modular things you already have, like the graph lib or 
JJ's GA thing.   But maintainers seem to quit maintaining, we can't put 
those into the core of Swarm unless someone is willing to maintain them, 
and nobody is.  Same is true for the applications in the 
swarmapps-objc.  There could be more there, but nobody steps up to 
maintain old programs like "market". 

It may be that there are many better ways to build models, if so, tell 
me how. Give some code, show a product. 

pj

--
Paul E. Johnson                       email: address@hidden
Professor, Political Science          http://pj.freefaculty.org
1541 Lilac Lane, Rm 504                              
University of Kansas                  Office: (785) 864-9086
Lawrence, Kansas 66044-3177           FAX: (785) 864-5700