Re: gripes, etc.

[Matthew Berg <galt gothpoodle com>]

On Mon, 4 Sep 2000, Andrew Sutton wrote:

> 1. there's no roadmap.
> 
> 2. i couldn't find any evidence of a steering commitee.
> 
> 3. no middle ground documentation

One and two are almost definitely the domain of the newly formed Gnome
Foundation, I would think. :) And number three would is likely to be a
concern there as well, especially given the new commercial interests.

Since the Gnome Foundation is so new, I would expect there to be some time
before their effect to become apparent, but if it does its job, these will
be forthcoming.

For the time being, the best place to see the roadmap is here on the
mailing list.  Not the most accessible solution, but its what is out
there.  

Documentation is a bit more tricky.  The API references are very helpful,
as well as the tutorials on the GTK+ website.  You may also want to check
out the various books available, such as GGAD (Gnome and GTK+ Application
Development), which, IIRC, is available for download.  (Sorry, no URL).

> 4. i still didn't solve my problem
> 
> just a gripe in general. i think the linux development community could
> definitely benefit from a design tool like rational's modeller. imagine,
> making the right decisions early can save you from complete rewrites
> later (as technologies change and evolve). so, if there's one in the
> works... great!, otherwise... um... anybody want to write one? i have
> limited (read none) gnome development experience, but i can definitely
> contribute solid ideas.
> 
> imagine the possibilities... integrated development envirionment with
> design, gui development (glade), code generation, documentation
> generation, code editing (wouldn't be much of an ide without it),
> requirement tracking, bug tracking, configuration management... just
> thinking big :)
> 
> comments, questions?

Well, a lot of open source developers stick to the old standbys (vi,
emacs, cvs, etc).  But I can see how a strong IDE would be a boon.

One thing I'd like to see is such a tool being done keeping the idea of
widely distributed development in mind, as well as compatibility with
traditional unix tools.  

Matt