[4suite-dev] Big changes

Thu Mar 13 09:35:12 MDT 2008

I had a client-funded project over the past few months that had a lot 
more to do with Bright Content [1] than 4Suite, and that did BC a world 
of good.  Now it's 4Suite's turn.  We have a client who will in effect 
be funding a modernization and code quality effort for a next, big 
4Suite release.  Focus will not be on features (we got plenty of those 
already ;-) ) but on closing gaps in performance, quality, 
documentation, deployment support, etc.  The project began last week, 
and the good news is that I and several other developers will be much 
more fully engaged on 4Suite over the next few months.

I'm also going to take this opportunity to do some much-needed spring 
cleaning on the project.  On some matters I've made some executive 
decisions in close consultation with other key contributors.  In some 
other matters I'd like to seek community input once again.  And there 
are a few things in which we'd like to solicit help from the community.  
There is a fair amount of work that we can't expect our clients to pay 
for, and this will require volunteer time from us, and I hope from other 
contributors.

----

So first of all the big decisions that are settled.  I hope there's 
nothing too controversial here:

4Suite XML 2.0 and Amara 2.0 will merge, and be jointly renamed "Amara 
2.0".  The "4Suite" name has always been awkward, for several reasons, 
and one main reason for that name, Fourthought, Inc. is dormant.  Amara 
is an established name for this purpose and has good Google Karma.  
Amara has always just been a thin added layer on 4Suite, anyway, as 
evidenced by the former Amara-allinone distribution.  "4Suite" will live 
on in the 1.x branch, and current references to "4Suite" will be 
maintained, and just redirected to Amara where it makes sense.

4Suite.org will remain for 1.x, but the new home of Amara 2.0 and 
several related projects will be xml3k.org (a bit of a tongue-in-cheek 
domain, mind you).  Most of the present work is on the Wiki: 
http://wiki.xml3k.org/ , but there will be project-specific home pages 
at e.g. amara.xml3k.org .

BTW I'd like to take this opportunity to thank Luis Miguel Morillas for 
hosting this domain, and for having been such a constant friend to the 
4Suite project over the past few years.

What used to be called "4Suite Server (4SS)" or "4Suite repository" will 
become a set of WSGI components named Akara.  Akara will provide 4Suite 
core facilities as well as some important support capabilities such as 
rdflib for RDF integration.  rdflib, BTW wil absorb the 4RDF component 
of 4Suite.  Yes, it's all complex, but the end result it so make it all 
simpler.  I promise :-)   In short:

4Suite + Amara => Amara 2.0
4SS + WSGI.xml + xsltemplates => Akara 2.0 (yes there was an Akara in 
the past; this is a new approach)

We get rid of 3 old names/components which will certainly give me less 
to explain.

We will probably package the more broadly useful bits of Akara 
separately from the more enterprise-targeted features.  The goal is to 
package it so that such a partition can be maintained without much 
developer or user pain.

Much of this has been discussed in the past, e.g. [2].

Also, We'll be migrating from CVS to Mercurial.  There will be a set of 
core repositories, probably at hg.xml3k.org, but we'll also try to avoid 
any impediments to doing things the DVCS way.

Some key links:

* Roadmap for 4Suite/Amara and such: http://wiki.xml3k.org/Roadmap
* 4Suite 1.x front page: http://wiki.xml3k.org/4Suite
* Amara 1.x front page: http://wiki.xml3k.org/Amara
* Amara 2.x front page: http://wiki.xml3k.org/Amara2

I'll be shutting off write access to notes.4Suite.org, and all needed 
content will be migrating to wiki.xml3k.org.  If you'd like to help with 
that, please let us know.

----

That takes me to the second major topic: areas where we could use help

If you'd like to help in one of the following tasks, please let me know:

* A grand renaming in Python code from "4Suite" to "Amara", including 
"import Ft" -> "import amara", updating copyright messages, etc. and of 
course testing that the test suites pass after the rename
* Ditto for C code (there shouldn't be much to do in the C code)
* Migration of material from notes.4Suite.org to wiki.xml3k.org
* Convert 4Suite test framework (which predated unittest) to unittest, 
or at least help convert individual test cases

If you can help, please let us know on this thread, and join the 4Suite 
developers' mailing list [3], if you're not already a member.  Also 
don't forget the 4Suite Jabber chat room: 4suite at conference.jabber.org

----

Finally there are some undecided points on which I'd like to seek 
thoughts from the community.  Don't be shy.  Speak up now :-)

* Proposed migration from Mailman to GoogleGroups for the Amara list (at 
least 3: user, dev, announce)
* Proposed migration from SourceForge issue tracking to Trac 
(trac.xml3k.org)?.  Other options: Roundup, code.google.com...
* Proposed migration from SourceForge releases to just making each 
release a Wiki page (we always have Cheeseshop, as well).  Another 
option is code.google.com

Much of this has been discussed in the past, e.g. [4].

[1] http://wiki.xml3k.org/Bright_Content
[2] 
http://lists.fourthought.com/pipermail/4suite-dev/2007-July/002227.html 
et seq.
[3] http://lists.fourthought.com/mailman/listinfo/4suite-dev
[4] 
http://lists.fourthought.com/pipermail/4suite-dev/2007-July/002226.html 
et seq.

-- 
Uche Ogbuji                       http://uche.ogbuji.net
Founding Partner, Zepheira        http://zepheira.com
Linked-in profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/ucheogbuji
Articles: http://uche.ogbuji.net/tech/publications/