[Grub-dev] Wondering about Architecture, Bug-base, Discussions, ...

[Bartek Jasicki]

2008-10-22, 08:09:40
Swaroop C H <swaroop at swaroopch.com> wrote:

> 
> Out of curiosity, why are there so many clients?
> Especially because they are not all in sync?
> 

1. Most of clients was created when we start work on Grub. Our
development model is (using terminology from
http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/cathedral-bazaar/ )
typical bazaar - we only show what we want to achieve, not way to it.
So, if you want start work (for example) on Python client or continue
work on any existing client - there is no problem ;)
2. We don't delete any code, even if it is made as a experiment (like
Bash client - for me it is only experiment).
3. C and C# clients focus on different groups of users. C client is
made mainly for usage on servers, when C# client is focused on desktop
computers. Of course they can be used in second way too ;)

> If it is considered useful, I can work on the Perl client, if someone
> is willing to guide me on Grub :)
> 

Any help are welcome ;) Short documentation about client is here:
http://grub.org/?q=/node/140
If you been have any question about this documentation, feel free to
ask ;) At this moment, Perl client need IMO support for proxy, content
coding and creation of sitemaps from crawled URLs. Additionally it can
have automatic mode.

> Oh wow, didn't realize there are so few people involved.
> 
> Not intending to rake a controversy, but is there a reason why? It
> seems that both these people are working full-time for Wikia? Why is
> there a lack of interest from outside contributors? Or is there
> something else to the bigger picture (more interest in Nutch?)
> 

Difficult questions ;) IMO - there is few reasons:
1. By long time, Grub page was dead. With old content, broken links and
no information about current progress of work on Grub. So, all project
looks like dead. Current page was only 4-5 months and many
documentations or informations occur on it in last month or two. And of
course - this informations are still incomplete.
2. Informations about Grub on Wikia Search are good hidden or
outdated (yes, again I rant about this) ;) I'm really surprised that
someone can find Grub ;)
3. Grub is not that spectacular like Wikia Search interface ;) Less
people use it, so if you join to Grub you gain less fame ;)
4. If you look on very similar project - BOINC, you see similar
situation: program used by hundreds of thousands people on world, but
developed only by few developers. 

And one more thing - yes, there is only few developers, but
additionally other people contribute to Grub too: few people made
translations of C# client or page, reports bugs etc. In
distributed projects like Grub, users are that same important (or
even more) like developers - because most important part of project is
not client or servers but output produced by project (database).
Developers can "only" made user friendly (and stable) tools, but only
users can produce this output ;) So, IMO every Grub user is a part of
team ;)

Bartek

-- 
Grub Next Generation: http://grub.org
Mailing List: grub-dev at wikia.com
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