Status Update #5 -- May 22, 2003

1. Addressing Unresolved Issues

A few weeks ago we decided to identify and describe issues that have been hanging around unresolved for a while. (We sometimes refer to this type of issue as a "snake.") This week OSAF staff is trying to make progress on some of these problems. We decided not to try to do these via IRC, but to resort to face-to-face gathering of OSAF staff. We felt we had to develop consensus before we could talk rationally to each other let alone to a larger community.

The topics for this week's discussions are below. The issue briefs we used as problem statements are also noted. We hope to get updates posted shortly.

• Quality Assurance -- what can we do to build quality software

• Development Process -- how can we document past decisions, current status, and the near-term future? How do we ensure consistency between parcels written by different people? How do we make decisions?

• Database (Repository) -- what do we know about the repository, and what problems need to be resolved?

• Security -- can we divide the giant topic of "security" into smaller parts and then figure out where we are with regard to each of these smaller areas?

• Chandler 2.0 planning is the next scheduled topic.

We're working on documenting the outcome of these discussions and getting them posted.

2. The 0.2 Release

The overriding goal of the 0.2 release is to Design and implement key areas of Chandler's infrastructure and platform. The purpose and goals are described more fully in this planning document: http://wiki.osafoundation.org/bin/view/Chandler/ZeroPointTwoPlanning

We still need to develop a detailed breakdown of features and fine-grain tasks to be completed for the 0.2 Release, and estimate requirements and tasks dependencies. We're aiming to complete this by end of this month, although this depends somewhat on the outcome of the various meetings described above. Then we will develop a detailed plan and schedule for 0.2. We want the schedule for 0.2 to be realistic; we see it as more important to get the infrastructure pieces implemented correctly than to meet a particular timeframe. However, once we develop a schedule to intend to take the schedule very seriously.

3. Chat sessions

Thursday, May 22 at 4:30: discsussion of Status Update 5.

Tuesday, May 27 at 1pm we'll have a session on Chandler Architecture, with John Anderson and Andy Hertzfeld.

Question: Would chat session on the weekend be better than during the week?

4. People

Some time ago Rys stepped away from her work on the Chandler database, and more recently left OSAF staff. We thank Rys for her work, and wish her well. Keith decided that he would prefer to pursue his independent business and has left OSAF; we wish him well. So if you know of a great Graphics and Interaction Designer, send him or her our way.

OSAF has a new member in Andi Vajda. (Now we have Mitch and Mitchell, Kaitlin and Katie and Andy and Andi; if we follow this path we should be hiring another Jurgen, Morgen and Jed soon) Andi is responsible for the persistence of Chandler objects and for providing a framework for persisting such objects and their schema. Or, to put it more simply, Andi is responsible for making sure that when you quit Chandler and then come back, all your stuff is still there. There are obviously a lot of specifics in Andi's role, including such things as indexing and searching. But since Andi's first day was Tuesday the 20th, I figured we'd give him a bit of time before asking him to describe these things. We very happy to have Andi working with us; you should see him on IRC before too long.

Ducky is on vacation, so won't be answering mail for another 10 days or so.

We currently have three open positions at OSAF: Graphic and Interaction Designer, E-mail Specialist and Security Developer. More detail can be found at the OSAF employment page.

-- MitchellBaker - 22 May 2003