Re: Mission Statement

[Karl Fogel <kf...@galois.collab.net>]

+1 on the mission statement.

Maybe add that it's not about providing user interface code (GUI or
otherwise), but rather a system portability layer and a library of
common C data structures and routines.

So, something like:

   The Apache Portable Run-time mission is to provide a free library
   of C data structures and routines, forming a system portability
   layer to most Unices and the major commercial operating systems.

Since APR already exists, it is pretty much its own mission statement,
and I doubt we'll have unresolvable disagreement over what should go
in it.  The above tweaks are mainly to head off questions of adding
GUI or other interface features (which seem distinct from the current
APR mission), or bending over backwards to support very rare and
exceptional platforms (also seems not worth it, IMHO).

-K

Sascha Schumann <sa...@schumann.cx> writes:
> On Tue, 14 Nov 2000, Greg Stein wrote:
> 
> > On Tue, Nov 14, 2000 at 12:36:08PM -0800, rbb@covalent.net wrote:
> > >...
> > > So, to spark some conversation, here is a VERY vague mission statement
> > > that needs to be refined and made more specific.
> > >
> > > : The Apache Portable Run-time mission is to provide a library of routines
> > > : that allows programmers to write a program once and be able to compile
> > > : it anywhere.
> > >
> > > So, let's have at it.   :-)
> >
> > I see no reason to make a "mission" any more complicated than that.
> 
>     Hm, it looks a bit broad.
> 
>     Or can I compile my GUI program on Unicos using APR?
> 
>     Do we intend to be able to do that somewhen in the future?
> 
>     - Sascha

RE: Mission Statement

["William A. Rowe, Jr." <wr...@rowe-clan.net>]

Does this address the OS's issue?

  The Apache Portable Run-time mission is to provide a free library
  of C data structures and routines, forming a system portability
  layer to as many operating systems as possible, including Unices, 
  MS Win32, BeOS and OS/2.

I changed the wording deliberately to encourage the APR project to
actively pursue new operatings systems to support.  Comments?

Re: Mission Statement

[Sascha Schumann <sa...@schumann.cx>]

On Tue, 14 Nov 2000, Greg Stein wrote:

> This is a good one, although we could change the last fragment to "... layer
> to many operating systems, such as *nix, Windows, BeOS, and OS/2."
>
> Somebody recently said OS/390 generally runs as Unix, so maybe we don't have
> to list that one :-). Hrm. And there is Netware. Grr. Where does it end?! :-)

    We want to support systems which conform to POSIX (and no,
    systems conforming to some draft other than the final one
    don't count). ;-)

> +1 on Karl's (maybe tweak the OS stuff)
> +0 on Bill's (minus the daemon stuff)
> -0 on Ryan's

    Ok, I can see how Karl's mission statement can help us to
    decide questions like "Do we accept a GUI abstraction as
    contribution?". Having said, +1 on his proposal.

    - Sascha

Re: Mission Statement

[Greg Stein <gs...@lyra.org>]

This is a good one, although we could change the last fragment to "... layer
to many operating systems, such as *nix, Windows, BeOS, and OS/2."

Somebody recently said OS/390 generally runs as Unix, so maybe we don't have
to list that one :-). Hrm. And there is Netware. Grr. Where does it end?! :-)

+1 on Karl's (maybe tweak the OS stuff)
+0 on Bill's (minus the daemon stuff)
-0 on Ryan's

Oh, and Karl: "unresolveable disagreement" ... don't be too sure on that. In
my previous email, I alluded to the question of "is APR a portability
library, or is it a utility library?" has come up and there are wildly
different opinions. Generally, we've stuck to portability, but the tension
between the two approaches is still there (friendly tension, tho)

Cheers,
-g

On Tue, Nov 14, 2000 at 12:54:03PM -0600, Karl Fogel wrote:
> +1 on the mission statement.
> 
> Maybe add that it's not about providing user interface code (GUI or
> otherwise), but rather a system portability layer and a library of
> common C data structures and routines.
> 
> So, something like:
> 
>    The Apache Portable Run-time mission is to provide a free library
>    of C data structures and routines, forming a system portability
>    layer to most Unices and the major commercial operating systems.
> 
> Since APR already exists, it is pretty much its own mission statement,
> and I doubt we'll have unresolvable disagreement over what should go
> in it.  The above tweaks are mainly to head off questions of adding
> GUI or other interface features (which seem distinct from the current
> APR mission), or bending over backwards to support very rare and
> exceptional platforms (also seems not worth it, IMHO).
> 
> -K
> 
> Sascha Schumann <sa...@schumann.cx> writes:
> > On Tue, 14 Nov 2000, Greg Stein wrote:
> > 
> > > On Tue, Nov 14, 2000 at 12:36:08PM -0800, rbb@covalent.net wrote:
> > > >...
> > > > So, to spark some conversation, here is a VERY vague mission statement
> > > > that needs to be refined and made more specific.
> > > >
> > > > : The Apache Portable Run-time mission is to provide a library of routines
> > > > : that allows programmers to write a program once and be able to compile
> > > > : it anywhere.
> > > >
> > > > So, let's have at it.   :-)
> > >
> > > I see no reason to make a "mission" any more complicated than that.
> > 
> >     Hm, it looks a bit broad.
> > 
> >     Or can I compile my GUI program on Unicos using APR?
> > 
> >     Do we intend to be able to do that somewhen in the future?
> > 
> >     - Sascha

-- 
Greg Stein, http://www.lyra.org/