Re: [Gnu-arch-users] is there demand for itla?

[Clark McGrew]

On Wed, 2003-11-19 at 16:51, address@hidden wrote:
> On Wed, Nov 19, 2003 at 04:25:45PM -0500, Clark McGrew wrote:
> > On Tue, 2003-11-18 at 04:57, Stephen J. Turnbull wrote:
> > > >>>>> "Tom" == Tom Lord <address@hidden> writes:
> > > 
> > >     Tom> The question I'm stuck on is how much "demand" there is for
> > >     Tom> itla.
> > > 
> > > So I don't see a naive TTY interface as
> > > a big area for new demand.[1]
> > 
> > It depends on what you mean by a big area of new demand.  TLA is a
> > powerful tool that the exemplary users on this list seem to be quite
> > happy with.  But, for naive users the CVS interface is much cleaner.  My
> > assertion is that if TLA (ITLA) can "become as easy as" CVS, there is a
> > huge pool of potential users waiting to dump CVS.  My (abysmal)
> > marketing sense says that ITLA should initially be targeted toward those
> > users.

> That is not what I understood from Tom. itla will allow a workflow to be
> implemented.  How hard it is to 'get into' that workflow is entirely up
> to the implementer of the optional policies that the tool will allow.

That's exactly the point.  Unlike TLA, ITLA can implement optional
policies that don't need to be completely general.  One particular set
of policies might be a very simple set of policies which capture the CVS
workflow and are a hook to grab dissatisfied CVS users, a group which I
perceive to be large.  My (probably faulty) intuition is that the best
way to go after them is with command line tool that is sort of like CVS,
but "just a little bit" better.  The beauty of ITLA is that it can be
that tool, and still be a strong foundation to implement really complex
project policies.

Remember, this is aimed at answering the question "Is there a demand for
ITLA?".  I'm asserting, "Yes, there is a huge pool of potential users." 
> Targeting beginning users is what a GUI is for. The first screen in my
> (very alfa) GUI tool shows only the need for updating and committing
> changes.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for GUI's and look forward to seeing what
you've cooked up.  I think a good GUI and an easy to use command line
interface are quite complementary.

-Cheers,
Clark
-- 
Clark McGrew                    Univ. at Stony Brook, Physics and Astronomy
<address@hidden>        631-632-8299