Re: [Gnu-arch-users] Bounty for tla on win32

[John F Meinel Jr]

One side thing, "your port" is supposed to be Johannes' port. Originally 
I was going to write directly to all the port writers, but I figured I'd 
open it up wider.

I was actually planning on contributing to Tom directly, just as part of 
supporting arch. But it doesn't hurt to remind us that you will be doing 
some of the work.

I also agree with Tom's idea of matching grants. If people want, I don't 
have any problem being a focal point for managing who is paying (for) 
what. But I also won't require that it be me. It might be better to have 
someone like Tom do it, since he is more officially part of the work.

I definitely want this to be an 'official' win32 port, so interoperating 
with Tom is important. I just didn't know how much was going to need to 
be changed to get it to work on win32, and if Tom would allow that into 
tla mainline. If all it ends up being is #ifdef _WIN32 #endif stuff, 
then my guess is it would be fine.

How to handle multiple people, and best versus first, etc.:
I think there will need to be a "sign-up period" where I get a list of 
people who are interested. Then amongst the group, we'll need a general 
idea of what needs to be done (this should also involve leroy, Johannes, 
and Tom if possible).
After that, I can try to assign the work to whoever is interested. 
Hopefully each task will be small enough that at least progress can be 
seen within a week or two. If reasonable progress is made, then they get 
to keep working on it. If not, then it should be assigned to someone else.

It might end up that only one person works on the whole thing, depending 
on how much work it ends up being.

If 2 people decide to work on the same thing, then we'll have to work 
out more there. First is important (because it needs to get done), but 
if it is not maintainable, and Tom won't let it near mainline, then it 
isn't useful either.

Just so people know, I'm thinking < $500 from me. If we get more 
sponsorship, then obviously it will go into the pot as well. And even if 
the whole thing doesn't get done with this amount, at least we'll be a 
lot farther along.
John
=:->

Tom Lord wrote:

>    > From: John F Meinel Jr <address@hidden>
>
>    > So instead, I'm willing to put my money where my mouth is and offer to 
>    > give some money[2] for people to have the time to work on it. I use 
>    > cygwin all the time, so Leroy's version is fine for me. your port would 
>    > probably also be fine if someone wanted to help him port tar to the 
>    > hackerlab libraries.
>
> and you add:
>
>    > [2] Since it is just me, it's not like I can hire a full-time
>    > programmer, but I am willing to put up a few hundred
>    > dollars. Obviously, this would be more of an iterative thing
>    > than a lump-sum payment, since I would prefer to pay as things
>    > work, rather than pay all up front, and I'm sure whoever helps
>    > doesn't just want to wait until it's all done to get paid.
>
> Thank you.
>
> I suggest that you also solicit "matching grants" -- other people and
> companies can add to your bounty.  This is a great and just way to get
> work done on free software.  It's not "fully general" -- it won't
> solve all R&D needs -- but when it works it works.
>
> Please be careful to structure the offer to not wind up with people
> contributing redundent labor.  That is: a bounty should be structured
> so that someone is officially granted the responsibility to do the
> work and take the reward rather than having 10 people race to do the
> work, wasting the time of 9 people.
>
>
>    > I would be happy to provide bug reports and listings of my current 
>    > problems with the cygwin port. I also could help some with the 
>    > development, I just don't have a lot of time to work on it. Also, I 
>    > would like the development to be done in the open, and as compatible 
>    > with mainline tla as possible. Then depending on what changed, maybe 
>    > some of it could be merged into mainline tla.
>
>
> I strongly encourage that "working with Tom to get this into the
> mainline" is part of the requirements of the project.   Obviously I
> have selfish reasons for that but beyond those I think it makes the
> result substantially more valuable to you.   
>
> Along those lines, I generally ask people who embark on this kind of
> thing to also pay me a bit, too, when it comes down to having to spend
> time reviewing changes and integrating them into the mainline.
> Because you are just a private individual putting up just a small
> amount of money (in absolute terms -- I'm not questioning your
> generosity), and because this particular feature is aligned with my
> own goals, I'm _not_ asking you to pay me as well (unless you get some
> serious matching grants).  I only mean to point out that projects such
> as what you propose wind up using some of my labor too, and typically
> take away from other priorities.  So, it's appropriate to give me some
> consideration as well.
>
> Go, man, go.  I hope your bounty succeeds.
>
> -t
>
>