[Coin-discuss] encouraging contributions to COIN

[Gosavi, Abhijit]

One reason why I am still on the list is I am hoping that we shall be able
to create an open source code for discrete event simulation.  The commercial
simulators are very expensive.  This will be a terrific contribution both
for the industrial engineering and the computer science communities.

Perhaps the issues raised by Brady need to be discussed at a meeting -
INFORMS maybe?

Abhijit Gosavi
Assistant Professor
University of Southern Colorado
2200 Bonforte Blvd
261, Technology Bulding
Pueblo CO 81001
Phone: (719) 549-2788
Fax: (719) 549-2519
URL: http://faculty.uscolo.edu/gosavi
 

 -----Original Message-----
From: 	Brady Hunsaker [mailto:hunsaker at isye.gatech.edu] 
Sent:	Wednesday, May 01, 2002 3:32 PM
To:	coin-discuss at oss.software.ibm.com
Subject:	[Coin-discuss] encouraging contributions to COIN

In order for COIN to really prosper, it seems to me that we need more
people using COIN and more people contributing to COIN.  Based on the
relatively low level of activity in the mailing lists, I don't get the
sense that the COIN community is as large as it could/should be.

While there are a number of possible reasons for this, there is one
that I would like to address: encouraging contributions.

How should programmers submit bug fixes or new code to COIN?  I have
been using COIN and following the mailing lists for more than six
months, but I still don't know the preferred method for people
(without CVS upload privileges) to submit code.  What seems to happen
most is that people post their contributions on coin-discuss.  The FAQ
on the web page has no question on how to submit code or what kind of
code we'd like to have submitted.  There is a question about reporting
bugs, but the link it gives is broken.  I think this all sends the
message that we don't really want people to submit code.

In the cases where I've seen new code offered, results have been mixed.
I was happy to see OsiDylp appear in the CVS repository yesterday, but
it was reported as being almost ready in early March.  The
"contribution" of OsiSimplexInterface for low level control like pivots
was made in February, but has never made it into the distribution.
Perhaps there is a reason for this, but I have never seen it
mentioned.  Again, the message I get is that contributions to COIN
will take a long time to make it into the distribution if in fact they
ever do, so it's probably better to concentrate my creative energy
elsewhere. 

I believe that like any open-source project, COIN's strength will come
from an active, diverse group of contributors.  Right now I don't
think we're encouraging the formation of such a group.  I think it
would help to publicly address the following questions:

- Do we want people to contribute code? 

- How should people submit their contributions?

- Is there a procedural difference between submitting bug fixes,
 improvements to existing code, and wholly new elements?

- What will happen after it's submitted?  For example, will a
  developer with CVS privileges keep the contributor posted on where
  things stand?  How long do we expect the process to take?

- Who decides whether bug fixes and improvements to existing code are
  actually put in the distribution?

- Is there some approval process for new contributions?  If so, what
  sort of contributions are we looking for?

- Are there technical requirements for new contributions?

- Are changes that only affect documentation handled differently?

- At what point do contributors gain CVS upload privileges?


I really like the ideas behind COIN, but right now I think we're not
encouraging outsiders (like me) to get involved.  I'm not sure what the
best way to improve the situation is, but I think we need to discuss
it to see if there are any changes that would help.

Brady

----------------
Brady Hunsaker
Georgia Institute of Technology
Program in Algorithms, Combinatorics, and Optimization
School of Industrial and Systems Engineering

E-mail address:   hunsaker at isye.gatech.edu
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