[DotGNU]DotGNU Informer No. 4 (irc meetings summaries)

[Norbert Bollow]

The DotGNU Informer -- Volume 1, Issue No. 4

Here's a summary of the recent DotGNU irc meetings.  (For info on
DotGNU's irc channel and on the weekly meetings, please refer to
http://dotgnu.org/irc.html ).


pnetlib
~~~~~~~
rhysw spent most of this week nailing the TODO items in mscorlib, and
thinks it's ECMA-complete now.  That just leaves System and System.Xml
Also, rhysw completely overhauled System.Net.Sockets, and hopefully
that namespace is done, barring bugs.  minddog is about to close up
the TODO's in XmlTextReader.  In total, we have done 660+ out of 860+
classes that are needed to be 100% signature-compatible with MS'es
mscorlib.dll - Test cases are the big area that we need help with.

Regular expressions library
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
minddog needs regular expressions for parsing URLs in some of his dgee
work.  Spencer regex is already in pnet; it's used by the directory
routines in mscorlib, via internalcalls.  Unfortunately, the syntax of
spencer regex is different from System.Text.RegularExpressions.  For
some "docs" see pnetlib/runtime/Platform/RegexpMethods.cs.  As a plan
to solve meet the short-term regexp needs, this can be used in a utility
library:  just declare a class called "Platform.RegexpMethods" and ilrun
will do the rest.  Then this can be wrapped up in clever wrapper classes.

docs
~~~~
We definitely need someone to go through the whole pnet tree and check
for missing man pages, texinfo doc, etc.  csant is an obvious glaring
hole, but not the only one - ilasm's syntax is only partially documented.
No volunteer is found at the meeting, so we'll ask for a volunteer via
the mailing list.

GUIs
~~~~
malenfant is writing wxWindows test cases for wx.Net and testing on
pnet, mono, dotNET.  We need to do more regular interoperability checks
on gui frameworks, track the bugs better, etc.  minddog is planning a
demo of pnet with multiple GUI frameworks.  rhysw will fix the library
naming issue for gtk, and minddog will look at whatever else it takes
to get Gtk# to work.

DGEE
~~~~
minddog has a tool that (currently) uses reflection to work out what a
webservice does and writes a client for it.  The DGEE is not xmlrpc
specific.  But we can extend the 'client code' support as and when we
have other protocols.  A jabber transport is planned; the Jabber server
will connect to DGEE in the same way as apache does now (send data
request to dgee.jabber.org -> jabberd -> internal call to goldwater)
A "roadmap" page is beign worked on at http://wiki.dotgnu.org/DGEERoadMap
DGEE should have some sort of GUI admin tool which provides functionality
like e.g. Install webservice, uninstall webservice, [diss|en]able
webservice.  (All of these functions will be webservices provided by DGEE).
Additional developers are needed for implementing this.  (We need a gui
person, a client/server person, a server/client person and other people
if they want to help too.)


Integration of GNU.RDF with DGEE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
GNU.RDF could be made a DGEE module.  For some applications it may be
necessary to run on a cluster (e.g. VRS, which will be a cooperative
cluster, i.e. additional machines can become members of the cluster by
"subscribing" to it in some way).   


Running Python and Ruby in DGEE
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As of version 0.1.4 DGEE is ready now that Python can be integrated into
it (so that it will be possible for webservices to be e.g. in Python
bytecode, just like they can be in IL bytecode now), and essentially the
same can be done for Ruby.  In DGEE there is a nullVM which does nothing
- the bit where the bytecode actually gets executed just logs stuff out.
This can be modified by adding the code for a VM, and you've got a
custom VM!  You must generate a DGMX description file for you webservice
though, and fill in the 'language' attribure so that the DGEE knows what
VM to call.


The proposal to integrate of dotgnu-libs with the pnetlib tarball
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
dotgnu-base used to be maintained by silvernerd, and is currently
unmaintained.  A volunteer to maintain the "new" dotgnu-libs is
sought and found in nenolod.  A GNU maintainer must follow the GNU
Maintainer guidelines, which can be found at

   http://www.gnu.org/prep/maintain_toc.html

and is the "Official Voice of GNU" for the package, the one who accepts
or rejects contributions.  Rhys remains in charge of the low-level libs.


DotGNU and Free Software business
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The DotGNU project was born out of the vision to create a viable Free
Software industry.  This vision was there before DotGNU was even part
of GNU.  Unfortunatly the organisational vessel for that vision proved
to be totally inadequate.  nb wants to create a replacement, but isn't
sure yet how.  For now, he's slowly building http://freestrategy.info/
nb's research on business questions had led him to the conviction that
the main business problem that DotGNU can/should solve is the
integration of business processes across untrusted networks.  This may
become the main selling point of DotGNU: integrate your business
processes in a manner that's secure and that doesn't lock you into any
proprietary systems.  minddog asks if we should start making web
services for different business problems, like purchase orders, digital
signatures, etc.  nb replies that unless we have customers, we'd
probably build useless technology.  Some genuine customer needs to be
involved in order to create solutions that solve real problems.


Towards DotGNU Demos
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
What we can do now is start putting up some demos that will convince
potential customers that DotGNU can meet their needs.  The first step
is to talk (in-person or over the phone) with some potential customers,
to find out what will impress them.  minddog is going to email the PLUG
mailing list in hopes to find someone interested.


Greetings, Norbert.

-- 
Founder & Steering Committee member of http://gnu.org/projects/dotgnu/
Free Software Business Strategy Guide   --->  http://FreeStrategy.info
Norbert Bollow, Weidlistr.18, CH-8624 Gruet (near Zurich, Switzerland)
Tel +41 1 972 20 59        Fax +41 1 972 20 69       http://norbert.ch