On Tue, Aug 14, 2007 at 10:24:39AM -0400, Will Kurt wrote:
> Andrew, the pear.php.net repository site really
> seems to be essentially what I was envisioning
> (especially with the proposals section).
>
> Erik, there are several good reasons to build our
> own rather than use space available in other
> domains.  The first and foremost is that the
> library community is big enough and specific
> enough to warrant its own centralized location for these things.
>
> Another issue is that there are a large range of
> skills that are useful to library application
> development that simply aren't touched on in
> other areas.  There are plenty of people who
> understand AACR2, FRBR, LCSH etc that wouldn't go
> near a place like sourceforge thinking there is no room for them there.
>
> Simple branding is another very important
> reason.  Google the phrase 'library open source'
> and tell me if the results give you any sense
> that the library community is actively developing
> open source tools/libraries/applications/etc. to meet its needs.
>
> I've known a fair amount of library-staff who
> work on little code projects in isolation, who if
> they knew there was a larger project they could
> work on and get involved with they would (this is
> also true for the relatively large number of
> ex-software developers I've met in libraries).
> Snippets of code and various packages/libraries
> need to be organized and collected, but the
> larger aim would be to create a community of
> people interested in creating open source software applications for
> libraries.
>
> --Will
>
>
>
> At 05:12 PM 8/13/2007, you wrote:
>> At Mon, 13 Aug 2007 12:25:58 -0400,
>> Gabriel Farrell <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>> >
>> > In #code4lib today we discussed for a bit the possibility of setting up
>> > something on code4lib.org for code hosting.  The project that spurred
>> > the discussion is Ed Summer's pymarc.  The following is what I would
>> > like to see:
>> >
>> > * projects live at code.code4lib.org, so pymarc, for example, would be
>> >   at code.code4lib.org/pymarc
>> > * svn for version control
>> > * trac interface for each
>> > * hosted at OSU with the rest of code4lib.org, for now
>>
>> What will this offer that sf.net, codehaus.org, nongnu.org,
>> savannah.gnu.org, code.google.com, gna.org, belios.de, etc. don???t? Why
>> not simply link to
>> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_free_software_hosting_facilities>
>> and let people decide which they prefer?
>>

Will made some good points that I agree with, but the truth is I started
this conversation because we have some projects that need a home here
and now and, for a variety of reasons, none of the hosting options out
there are as exciting as hosting the code ourselves.  We might need to
think more seriously about administration once we've got a couple dozen
projects, but I say let's cross that bridge when we come to it.

On a separate note, in the channel it seems either source.code4lib.org
or src.code4lib.org are preferable to the rather redundant
code.code4lib.org.

>> Other people mentioned the sharing of code snippets; a wiki works best
>> for sharing code snippets, examples, & single file source. See
>> <http://emacswiki.org/> for a lively example.
>>
>> best,
>> Erik Hetzner
>>
>