Avalon TLP (was Re: Merlin TLP)

[Stephen McConnell <mc...@apache.org>]

Stefano Mazzocchi wrote:
> Stephen McConnell wrote:
> 
>> Stefano:
>>
>> Thank you for the offer - but could you provide some more details.  I 
>> think there are several questions that should be addressed - two 
>> immediately come to mind:
>>
>>   * Why incubation as opposed to a direct TLP?
>>     (after all there are no IP issues and the core
>>     developers are already great team)
>>   * What is left in Avalon is Merlin is taken out?
>>     (both in terms of technology and community)
> 
> 
> Before I answer, do I have your permission to quote what you wrote in 
> the comfort of the private PMC list on this matter?

I'll go one better - I'll state my own opinions on the subject here. 
Please keep in mind that the PMC context is a touch more political that 
the technical focus of this list so I'll try and separate concerns as 
they appear to me.

First off - as you know I'm not supportive of the idea of incubating 
Merlin and if I were to throw on my PMC Member hat I would vote against 
it.  Also, the question of a Merlin TLP is my my opinion something that 
has already been raised and as a result of a dialog with several people, 
a collective decision was taken to retract the proposal based on two 
factors:

   (a) the prior decision my this community to move Avalon to a
       single platform/product/specification
   (b) the promotion of the Excalibur community to its own TLP

Perhaps something has not been properly taken into consideration here. 
Merlin is nothing more than a brand that represents the implementation 
of an Avalon Component Model.  Getting to the point where that Component 
Model is sufficiently documented and backed by developer tools (Merlin 
Developer), the containment model (Merlin Runtime), the back-end 
solutions (Merlin Discovery), etc. is the challenge that the Avalon 
community is dealing with.

However, Merlin in Incubation has been raised and before I dismiss the 
proposition out of hand - I would like to understand the fundamentals. 
   I want to understand the rationale, the impact on the Avalon 
Community, the integrity of the proposal. Is the proposal simply a 
mechanism to deal with an opinionated individual or is the proposal 
grounded on some other value proposition that to-date has not been 
presented?  If its about an individual then the proposal is IMO 
misplaced because the community is much much more important and frankly 
- decisions based on individuals are not the same as decisions based on 
technical merit. Does the community of users using Avalon's reference 
implementation need incubation - no.  They are a great community already.

On the other-hand if it's an unstated value proposition then I'm very 
interested in hearing what that value proposition is.  In the meantime 
I'm putting my money on the Avalon TLP.

Stephen.

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