Re: Why Jam? (call to volunteer action)

From: danl_miller (danl_miller_at_[hidden])
Date: 2002-02-22 20:13:16

--- In boost_at_y..., Ross Smith <r-smith_at_i...> wrote:
> ... I challenge you to explain how Boost can be used in an open
source project in its current state or the foreseeable future.

  [ PREREQUSITE TO MY TAKING UP OF YOUR CHALLENGE ]

  Please read:
  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/boost/message/25701
  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/boost/message/25707
  http://groups.yahoo.com/group/boost/message/25737

  (I commit to contributing such a patch-set update to the Boost
WWW-site for review.)

  [ RESPONDING TO THE CHALLENGE ]

  Here is the explanation of how Boost can be used with autotools in
an open source project in the foreseeable future:

  One or more of the advocates of make/automake/autoconf organizes a
community of *volunteers* who agree that Boost needs
make/automake/autoconf build/install capabilities.  These
autotools-for-Boost advocates become a subcommunity *contributing*
open-source submissions to Boost.  This autotools-for-Boost
subcommunity takes on the full responsibility which they are asking of
*themselves*:  write (and maintain over the long haul) autotools
support for Boost themselves for the benefit of all of the open-source
community.

  In general people reap what they sow.  If the advocates of autotools
forever sow the seeds of inaction, then it is likely that they will
forever reap inaction.  If inaction regarding building/installing
Boost via autotools is intolerable to you (and apparently it is 100%
intolerable-to-the-core-of-your-being for some of you) and if you are
not actively assembling your fellow advocates-of-autotools and if you
are not contributing to an effort to add autotools support to Boost,
then your own inaction is intolerable to yourself.  Advocates of
autotools can easily become volunteers for the Boost effort,
contributing & maintaining autotools support for Boost.

  Conversely, if you are 1) complaining about the lack of autotools
for building/installing Boost and are 2A) not an active
(positive-contribution) member of Boost nor are 2B) assembling a team
to build out support for autotools nor are 2C) participating in such a
team which would be seriously taking on the responsibility of building
out & maintaining support for autotools for Boost, then *you*
*yourself* are the person to whom you should be complaining.  How are
*you* going to respond to *your* *own* complaint of why *you*---a
fervent advocate-of-autotools---have not yet built out & contributed
support for autotools for Boost?

  There is no evil Emperor of Boostland (a.k.a., the "powers that
be") prohibiting the advocates-of-autotools from building out support
for autotools for Boost.  There is the reality that autotools support
has not yet been built out for Boost.  There is the reality that not
all computers run Linux/UNIX/POSIX.1 operating systems.  The only
people stopping autotools support from being added to Boost for use on
Linux/UNIX/POSIX.1 operating systems are any of the *advocates* of
*autotools* who are themselves unwilling or incapable of volunteering
to write autotools support for Boost.

  Advocates-of-autotools, I took up your challenge to "explain how
Boost can be used in an open source project in its current state or
the foreseeable future."  Now I give you advocates-of-autotools a new
challenge of your own:  assemble yourselves (e.g., establish a Wiki),
communicate with each-other-of-like-mind (e.g., via private email or
via Wiki), build out support for autotools for Boost, submit your work
to Boost for public review, and---most of all---channel your energies
into *volunteering* to write such software instead of into purely
complaining about the lack of such software.

  The Boost Wikis are intended for such a team to work together while
writing such a submission.  The Boost Wikis are at:

  http://www.crystalclearsoftware.com/cgi-bin/boost_wiki/wiki.pl

  Boost is an on-going grand experiment attempting to do something
great for C++ and C++ standardization, please kindly help make this
visionary experiment a success.
 (And likewise, the GNU/Linux/etc open-source community-at-large is an
on-going grand experiment attempting to do something great for
humankind to which Boost can contribute.) 

  As for me, I am taking up my own self-imposed challenge of 1)
writing up my autotools-as-elective-adjunct proposal as Booost
WWW-pages for review and 2) preparing to Boostify & submit in 2002
several C++ libraries which I have written in recent years [and 3)
obediently accept Jam & Boost.Build as the lingua franca build system
chosen by the Boost community so that we can all focus on writing
reusable valuable standards-quality library-content for C++].  Taking
up one's own self-imposed challenge to successfully submit work
acceptable to the community-at-large is what volunteerism at Boost (or
any other open-source project) is all about.

  Dan'l Miller

--- In boost_at_y..., Ross Smith <r-smith_at_i...> wrote:
> -- 
> Ross Smith ...................................... Auckland, New
Zealand
> r-smith_at_i... ......................... http://storm.net.nz/~ross/
>   "We need a new cosmology. New gods. New sacraments. Another
drink."
>                                                        -- Patti
Smith