The GNUstep Roadmap

[Gregory John Casamento]

Things we must have to succeed:
-------------------------------
1) Stability.   It is necessary for us to go through all of the classes, both
in GUI and in BASE to ferret out any bugs which are there.
2) Completeness in the API.   All of the classes which a "half done" should be
finished or removed until such a time as they *are* completed.
3) A solid, fully tested, set of development applications and frameworks: (e.g.
PC, Gorm, Renaissance, GDL, etc)
4) More applications.  The more apps we have the better tested the API is. 
This feeds back into #1 and #1 feeds back into this.   We must start to get
developers interested in GNUstep.   Once developers are interested, users will
follow.
5) Corporate backing...  although not completely necessary, this would help.

Things which are a waste of time and detract from the success of GNUstep:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
1) Whining and bitching about bugs and constantly saying that we should
"re-write all of GNUstep".   
WHY: This philosophy is *wrong*.  Period.   No system is going to be perfect
the first time out.  You find the bugs you've got and you fix them.  Very
simple.  Debug where you can and rewrite only when you *must*. 

2) Whining and bitching about leadership.  
WHY: If you think a particular piece of the project needs leadership and you
think that a part of the project needs to be improved, take the initiative if
you feel that strongly about it.   Case in point: ME, MYSELF, & I. As Gorm's
Current Chief Maintainer, I have rewritten major portions of it and added large
amounts of functionality with some help from Pierre-Yves and Fabien Vallon.   I
can say that it's been a long journey, but Gorm is now fairly stable and
compares favorably to *ANY* interface builder (even the one on Mac OS X ;) ).  
Would this have happened had I not taken the initiative?  Probably not.   Why? 
Because everyone would have been sitting around bitching instead of actually
doing something.

3) Talk about forking the project.
WHY: Because it will split our resources and it will create further confusion
about the direction of this project since there will, in effect be *two*
GNUsteps.   Currently we already have a rather braindead fork called mgstep
which, of course, no one uses.

---
So, please, if anyone feels as though part of GNUstep needs improvement then,
by all means, take it upon yourself to make it better or, if you're not a
developer, be willing to work with a developer to help him/her (no females on
GNUstep yet, but for posterity ;)) to find bugs in it.

Also remember that an open source project is not like a company.   "Ordering"
someone to do something usually has very little effect on what they do or do
not do.

This project is a labor of love for me.  That's why I've persevered and that's
why I'll continue to be here.

Sincerely, GJC

=====
Gregory John Casamento -- CEO/President Open Logic Corp.
-- bheron on #gnustep, #linuxstep, & #gormtalk ---------------- 
Please sign the petition against software patents at: 
http://www.petitiononline.com/pasp01/petition.html 
--- Main Developer of Gorm (featured in April Linux Journal) ---

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