who is the audience, what are the goals?

[Janis Johnson]

Depending on the direction it goes and whether I get support from my
management, I might be interested in helping to organize the GCC
conference.  In the meantime, here are some thoughts about it.  Some of
these are from people I talked to at USENIX last week.

Before proceeding with specific arrangements we should understand the
intended audiences for the conference and their goals and needs.

Who are the intended audiences?  These might include:

   -  people interested in becoming GCC developers (is this Professor
      Ida's intended audience?)

   -  experienced GCC developers

   -  GCC users who want a forum for discussing changes they'd like to
      see in future versions of GCC

What are the goals of the conference?  These might include:

   -  basic information about GCC's structure and how to begin making
      changes to it (is this Professor Ida's goal?)

   -  allowing GCC developers to meet each other in person

   -  in-depth information about GCC internals for people who have had
      some experience contributing to GCC

   -  in-depth information about work going on in branches

   -  discussions about future directions for GCC

These goals might be served by different formats, including:

   -  formal tutorials; this is a good opportunity for those who have
      done training on GCC internals, or who want to do that, to try out
      their material

   -  formal presentations of papers

   -  invited talks by GCC users (e.g., from the embedded community or
      other groups with specific needs)

   -  discussions of the GCC internals documentation, led by volunteers
      who are not necessarily experts on the areas they cover, and
      attended by some people who are experts and can answer questions;
      a side benefit of this approach is an in-depth review and update
      of the existing documentation

   -  informal presentations of work in progress

   -  hackathon; at USENIX I heard about a recent OpenBSD hackathon
      consisting of between 20 and 40 developers hanging out together
      for several days; this requires a good electrical system!

   -  informal discussions during breaks (the most valuable part of any
      conference or workshop)

Any number of these formats could be done at a conference or workshop
devoted only to GCC or at a separate track at a related conference.

Requirements for the venue depend on who might want to attend and the
expected number of participants.  One thing to keep in mind is that many
GCC developers are volunteers who will need to pay their own way, so
keeping costs down might be quite important.  Perhaps we could find a
univerity that would let us use some space and even inexpensive housing,
close to a nice hotel for those who can afford that.

All of my lists are incomplete, and I'd like to see them expanded before
any decisions are made that will shut out some of the possibilities.

Janis Johnson
IBM Linux Technology Center
Beaverton, Oregon  USA
address@hidden