[tasklist-idea] GNU task list management

[Jose E. Marchesi]

Hi all,

I would like to share some impressions about the task list
management. 

I suppose you all agree in that the actual task list situation is
somewhat confusing. In order to make a clear whole picture, lets
identify all the entities actually involved in task management.


* The traditional task list (prep/tasks)

Now obsolete.

The traditional task list at www.gnu.org was a texinfo file where to
put GNU tasks. The entry point for the task list was
address@hidden, pointing to a RT queue. 

There is a link to prep/tasks on www.gnu.org/help 

I continue monitoring address@hidden


* The "GNU Help wanted items" savannah project 

Some months ago the traditional task list (at prep/) became
obsolete. The replacement was the "GNU Help wanted items" savannah
project, managed by Toby. The rationale for that migration was the
great savannah capabilities to reach developers.

Now we are using the job posting and news savannah facilities for
publishing the requested tasks. 

There is also the tasklist-idea mailing list.


* So, what to do?

Toby and i agreed some days ago in that we need to implement a more
structured work protocol for the task list, in order to keep track of
each task history, and therefore making easy any later modification of
it (for example, to mark a task as filled).

I am thinking in an organization similar to the evaluation group,
maintaining a unique task list on CVS. The task list would be composed
by several files, each one containing an outline and the history of a
task. Each task would be identified by a timestamp. Then, tasks
related request would be sent to address@hidden, where the person
monitoring it would fill an initial outline for the task, assigning it
a timestamp. Then, the person monitoring address@hidden would send the
task outline to address@hidden, and update the CVS. A script
would extract a texinfo file with all tasks and publish it on
prep/tasks, periodically. Also, people from tasklist-idea would
maintain the jobs and news of the tasklist savannah project synched
with the list master copy.

In that way, we could easily track each task history, and update
them. 


Please let me know what do you think.

--
Jose E. Marchesi <address@hidden>
GNU Spain        http://es.gnu.org
GNUs Not Unix!   http://www.gnu.org
--
"And if cynics ridicule freedom, ridicule community... if 'hard nosed
realists' say that profit is the only ideal...just ignore them, and
use copyleft all the same." -- RMS
---