[Coin-ipopt] Purpose of the coin-ipopt mailing list

[Andreas Waechter]

Hi!

Well, somebody has to write the first (=test) message ;-)

Maybe I just start by writing down a few thoughts on the purpose of this
mailing list.

The main purpose is to communicate questions and comments related to the
IPOPT project between users and developers (and also among developers),
such as problems during installation or usage, as well as to give a forum
where ideas regarding new features or improvements can be discussed,
encouraging whoever is interested in contributing to the code (for example
by writing an interface to alternative linear solvers).

The advantage of using a mailing list to this purpose over sending
messages directly to the authors of the IPOPT package is that the
correspondence (e.g. regarding common problems during installation) is
openly stored in an archive, so that one can browse through the older
postings, trying to find the desired information, before sending a new
message.  It also gives people who are interested an idea about what is
going on. (Well, if there are any ;-)

The source code in COIN is stored in a CVS repository, therefore allowing
the developers to update the files immediately after bug fixed or minor
improvements, so that those are quickly accessible.  We also decided to
give version numbers to certain stages of the code development, which will
be increased after major changes or a set of improvements, after a stable
state seems to be reached.  New releases will also be announced through
this mailing list, summarizing the changes since the last release.

In addition to a mailing list, the IBM developerWorks web site also offers
a bug tracking facility - the web site for the COIN project can be found
at http://www-124.ibm.com/developerworks/bugs/?group_id=30 . If someone
found a bug in the package, this might be an appropriate place to submit
the information (instead of this mailing list), since it also allows to
track the progress on the bug fix.

We encourage everyone, who is interested in contributing to IPOPT or has
questions regarding the package, to post message to this mailing list.
(Since we want to avoid to be flooded by spam email, only senders that
have subscribed to the list can post messages directly.  If you send a
message and have not subscribed yourself, your message will be posted
after revision of the content.)

The IPOPT package is a fairly new piece of software, and therefore there
are still many things that could be improved, such as documentation, but
there is not much motivation for the developers to write detailed
information if nobody is going to read it.  This mailing list could give
the developers an idea on how much interest there is from non-developers
in the use of the package, and what improvements or features are desired
by others.  (However, IPOPT being an open source project, this does not
mean that all wishes will be granted ;-)

Well, I better stop here (this should be long enough for a test message)
and close by citing LTB: "Let's see what happens".

Cheers

Andreas