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<TITLE>RE: [Xerte] Linux, Mac OS X platforms</TITLE>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>Although a big user of Open Source software (especially PHP and mySQL for development, and way too many to mention as an end-user) and a major fan of the concept, I suspect that applying OS to Xerte would result in considerable project management work by Julian and his colleagues, and he'd likely end up still doing all the coding himself. The impression I get, which I'm happy to be disabused of, is that Open Source projects require industrial software production methods, including rigorous version control, quality control, coding and documentation standards, maintaining community communications, and more. Such an approach is fine for coders in medium to large public and private enterprises who will be trained and experienced in distributed code development by geographically-dispersed programmers, and whose employers allow them to do Open Source work in work time, but quite a handful for us 'standalone' programmers working alone or in a small team.<BR>
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OS projects also require an awful lot of time commitment from the community, not just in coding but in the much less sexy areas of quality control and, above all, documentation - so many OS apps I've used (eg <A HREF="http://gallery.menalto.com">http://gallery.menalto.com</A>) which are the bee's knees suffer badly from inadequate, inaccurate and incomplete documentation, which in some cases makes them unusable unless you're prepared to hack the code. How many of you who'd like to see Xerte go OS would be prepared to put in tens or even hundreds of hours on these tasks? Even if you were willing, would your employers sanction it? It's notable that the most successful OS projects - Mozilla, PHP, mySQL, Apache to mention a few - are backed and funded by commercial companies (eg mySQL) or non-profit foundations (eg Mozilla). I wonder how many projects without such backing really get off the ground - Sourceforge is littered with moribund software which hasn't been updated for years.<BR>
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Don't get me wrong - I'm a big, big fan of OS for practical, social, economic and political reasons, but I have my doubts as to how applicable it would be to a relatively small, niche product like Xerte. Unless the Uni of Nottingham were to back the project with time and money, of course, but it might take some persuading.<BR>
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As for porting Xerte to Linux and/or Mac, I'd be well in favour of that, as I use both systems at home and far prefer them to Windoze. However, it would be a seriously non-trivial and time-consuming business for relatively little community reward. It would be a better use of Julian and his colleague's time to work on web templates for Xerte, which of course they're doing right now. Us Mac and *nix users can always use Windoze emulators (eg WINE for *nix, Parallels Desktop for Mac).<BR>
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Just my 2 Euro's worth, and all IMHO of course :)<BR>
<BR>
Cheers<BR>
<BR>
Fred Riley<BR>
Learning Technologist, School of Nursing, University of Nottingham<BR>
<BR>
<BR>
-----Original Message-----<BR>
From: xerte-bounces@lists.nottingham.ac.uk on behalf of Tenney Julian<BR>
Sent: Thu 3/6/2008 15:42<BR>
To: Xerte discussion list<BR>
Subject: RE: [Xerte] Linux, Mac OS X platforms<BR>
<BR>
No plans for Mac / Linux at the moment, I'm afraid. However, the file<BR>
format is open, and anyone can make their own editor for whatever<BR>
platform they like.<BR>
<BR>
When I've done open source projects in the past, I have found it to be a<BR>
one way street. The promised legions of developers who would turn up and<BR>
freely give of their time to improve the code, fix all the bugs and<BR>
write the documentation never appeared. We have an open mind about open<BR>
source - we're not against it, but supporting an open source project<BR>
would require a significant investment of our time, which we don't have<BR>
right now.</FONT>
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