[Source] xj3d checked into source forge, planned improvement activity

[Rex Melton]

So the short answer to my question was 'no'. Ahhh well.

I have no stake in this one way or another.

Just my opinion.

There is little to zero cachet to xj3d. Forking, rebranding and 
rebooting a quiescent software project is NOT an arduous task - either 
for the project or for dependent projects (of which there are few). It 
happens regularly. Projects move on and are successful.

I believe that forking, rebranding and rebooting the project would be a 
net positive and that you would be doing a service to all involved by 
renaming the thing and moving on from there.



On 8/19/2014 2:59 PM, Don Brutzman wrote:
> Hi Rex, hope you are well.
>
> Your questions are important, so in addition to your copying 
> source at web3d.org, I am copying these responses to the x3d-public 
> mailing list as well.  (Both mailing lists are public.)
>
> Further comment is welcome.
>
> On 8/17/2014 4:49 AM, Rex Melton wrote:
>> On 6/3/2014 3:12 PM, Alan Hudson wrote:
>>> Don, I understand your desires to fork the codebase and I'm fine 
>>> with that.  I would ask that you change the name of the new project 
>>> so there is no confusion.
>>
>> On 8/9/2014 9:15 PM, Don Brutzman wrote:
>>> Announcement: NPS has copied the full Xj3D codebase and history from 
>>> xj3d.org and uploaded everything to the Sourceforge Xj3D site.
>
> We have been following the plan outlined on the following wiki page 
> with recurring email discussion over the past months.
>
>     Xj3D Evolution
>
>     http://www.web3d.org/wiki/index.php/Xj3D_Evolution
>
>> Perhaps I missed some out of band communication on this....
>>
>> Has there been agreement to relocate the Xj3D repository without 
>> rebranding? If so, have there been discussions regarding cut over 
>> dates, commit rights, etc?
>
> There have been a series of prior messages on the source & x3d-public 
> mailing lists.  Summary, copied from the top of that wiki page:
>
> ========================================================================
> Discussion and consensus building
>
> We are using source at web3d.org mailing list to work out these 
> possibilities and build stakeholder consensus. (subscribe, archive)
>
> Consensus summary points
>
>     Basic strategy: we are evolving by re-versioning, not re-naming Xj3D
>     We will simply mirror the current xj3d.org repository, as version 
> 2.0, and maintain full backwards compatibility by integrating any 
> forthcoming changes there
> ========================================================================
>
> We met the publicly stated goal of completing the copying of the 
> entire Xj3D.org codebase + history to Sourceforge, just prior to the 
> Web3D Conference and SIGGRAPH 2014 in Vancouver.
>
> Here is some more about recent steps in Xj3D Evolution.  The 
> discussion about moving to github went pretty far, including the 
> creation of a project there.  Either sourceforge or github appeared to 
> be viable destinations.
>
> The xj3d.org site has of course been useful, but it is not effective 
> at encouraging either participation or improvement.  It has been 
> frozen for years now.  Further it's hostname renewal was in question a 
> few years ago, and Web3D Consortium's decision to assume the financial 
> responsibility for site renewal was rejected at the last minute before 
> private renewal.
>
> The NPSteam does not want to repeat that risk to our sizable 
> investment of time and effort into Xj3D, upon which multiple tools 
> depend.
>
> During the public creation and review of this Xj3D Evolution plan, it 
> became clear that multiple orphaned Xj3D projects need to be 
> integrated back into the Xj3D codebase.  They are listed on the page 
> above at
>
>     http://www.web3d.org/wiki/index.php/Xj3D_Evolution#Merge_orphaned_Xj3D_codebases 
>
>
> For some time, github appeared to be more appealing for encouraging 
> broad participation in Xj3D development.  However, recovering all this 
> past work became the dominant factor in choosing Sourceforge over 
> github, so that re-integration using subversion was possible.  NPS is 
> committed to working with these other projects to integrate their 
> sizable improvements back into Xj3D, one by one.
>
> The current Sourceforge Xj3D versioning plan is:
>
> - Migrate trunk, all branches, and all code history from Xj3D to 
> Sourceforge (complete)
> - Move current trunk snapshot to a branch, call it Xj3D version 2.0
> - Move the NPS branch to become new trunk, call it Xj3D version 2.1
> - Continue incrementing as 2.2, 2.3, etc. with each merger of past 
> projects
> - Build community of engaged users and committers using Sourceforge 
> suggested practices
>
> NPS is further prepared to track and adopt any future changes 
> occurring in the xj3d.org trunk over to Sourceforge Xj3D that may have 
> broad utility to Xj3D.
>
> Regarding commit rights, we would be happy to extend them to any of 
> the current Xj3D.org committers as individuals might want. Presumably 
> they might further want to be "in charge" of the Sourcefore Xj3D 2.0 
> branch, which would make sense.  As far as future committers who might 
> be added, following the Sourceforge rules for meritocracy and skill in 
> a community would seem to offer a proven path for group success.  The 
> mechanics of granting projeect permissions can be found at
> https://sourceforge.net/p/forge/documentation/Project%20Permissions
>
> I walked a few rows across the SIGGRAPH show floor last week and had a 
> constructive conversation with Alan Hudson (who you quoted above).  He 
> again mentioned naming, and that he didn't want to add features to the 
> existing stable Xj3D.  I explained how discussion regarding evolution 
> and recovery of past codebases became way too confounding if the 
> codebase had a different name.  It might also seem quite unfair to the 
> many people who have engaged in using and extending the Xj3D project.  
> Further, our focus is less on "features" per se, and more on simply 
> implementing the X3D standard within Xj3D.  Indeed, the opening 
> sentence on the Xj3D.org site states that case well:
>
>     http://xj3d.org
>
>     "Xj3D is a project of the Web3D Consortium focused on creating a 
> toolkit for
>     VRML97 and X3D content written completely in Java."
>
> Hopefully we are achieving the best interests of all concerned, to 
> continue growing the technical capabilities of Xj3D and encouraging 
> the growth of a larger and more-effective open-source community via 
> Sourceforge.
>
> I hope this summary provides a helpful recap of the good-faith 
> step-by-step efforts that are continuing.
>
> Additional questions, concerns, improvements and alternatives are 
> always welcome.
>
> all the best, Don