Status of xserver/debrix/modular tree?

[Felix Kühling]

Am Donnerstag, den 10.02.2005, 04:34 +0100 schrieb Bernardo Innocenti:
> Daniel Stone wrote:
> > On Thu, Feb 10, 2005 at 01:28:55AM +0100, Bernardo Innocenti wrote:
> > 
> >>The Xserver wiki page says the project is dead, pointing
> >>users to Debrix.  The link to Debrix, however, has
> >>disappeared from FreeDesktop's Software directory and
> >>the Arch repository doesn't work any more.
> >>
> >>Actually, the page was still there:
> >> http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software_2fdebrix
> >>
> >>...so I found out that Debrix migrated from arch to bazaar.
> >>I tried checking it out, but it's mostly old stuff which
> >>doesn't even build.
> > 
> > 
> > Interesting.  If you check out daniel at fooishbar.org/debrix--devel--0.1
> > (as opposed to daniel at fooishbar.org--2004/...), it should build and work
> > fine.  I put in some work a few weeks ago into ensuring that you could
> > bootstrap cleanly from the bottom of xlibs to the top of Debrix, so it
> > should all work.
> 
> Thank you!  Checking it out right now...  I'll let you know as soon
> as I find some time to test it.  Could you please update the wiki and
> restore the link to it from the Software page?

Updating the Wiki is really something, non-coding X-enthusiasts (like
you) can do. All you need to do is register (it's free) and start
working on the documentation. Since you follow the mailing list already
you'd be in the ideal position to keep the Wiki up-to-date.

> 
[snip]

> >>I'm curious about the future deriction of these projects?
> >>Is there a plan of some kind?  If so, where is it being
> >>discussed?
> > 
> > Some would argue that the future is modularisation.  Others have
> > argued that it's doomed to fail and we shouldn't even try.  That
> > debate is happening right now (on xorg@ -- it's very hard to miss),
> > and that will determine the future direction of the project.
> 
> As silly as I may seem, I did miss it.  Now I've browsed
> through February's xorg archives and I still can't find it.
> What's the exact subject?

February is a quite narrow time frame. You should check at least January
2005 and December 2004 too. Also, subjects are not always very
meaningful. For example some discussions were started by controversial
CVS commits, thus the subjects are something like "CVS Update: xc
(branch: trunk)". Another interesting thread (in December) is
"xc/programs considered harmful", as mentioned before in this thread.

> 
[snip]
> > Again, X.Org really does not have the critical mass you think it does.
> > Everyone is too busy working on code, really, and if you want to join
> > and contribute, you are invited to do so, but at the moment, the
> > project is desperately undermanned.
> 
> I see, but I still can't understand what's keeping people
> from joining the Xorg project.  Maybe we need more PR work?
> 
> No, I think the f.d.o. site is quite visible and informative.
> Getting a CVS account here is much easiter than in GCC, and
> you also seem to have an open policy for accepting patches
> from outside.  Xorg also gets some coverage on Slashdot and
> LWN...
> 
> The only explanation I can give is that people come here and
> see little activity on the mailing-lists, they get no idea
> what the other developers are doing and what the future
> direction is.  So they just loose faith and go away.

I don't think the problem is too little activity on the mailing lists.
In my eyes good technical discussions are happening on the list, though
maybe the range of subjects discussed in this way is still too narrow.
The flame-nature of some threads shows that some topics like
modularization are still very immature. There may be 1 or 2 people with
a clear picture of how things are going to be, but that doesn't mean
that everyone else agrees with that view. I hope the modularization
working group will be a big step forward by creating a common
understanding and consensus of what the plans and goals are. This is the
basis for technical discussions, as opposed to the rather ideological
ones we were seeing on the list up to now.

Hopefully, once the developers already involved have a clear idea of
where they are heading more people will start contributing to the Xorg
project(s).

-- 
| Felix Kühling <fxkuehl at gmx.de>                     http://fxk.de.vu |
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