[hobbit] Future of Hobbit

[Henrik Stoerner]

On Fri, Jan 25, 2008 at 03:06:20PM -0600, T.J. Yang wrote:
> 
> >Yeah I think he has planned to implement SSL, just hasn't gotten around
> >to it, and since he is the only coder, we have to wait...or do we? If
> 
> I think SSL encrypted channel has higher priority over snmp query
> (which is also good). for some reason henrik is implementing snmp 
> feature now.

Features have a tendency to get implemented in the sequence that a
developer needs them. I really don't need SSL-encrypted Hobbit traffic,
but I do need the SNMP support.

If someone else needs the SSL stuff badly, try implementing it and
send it to me for inclusion.

> >of the coding for him?  I've had the fact that Hobbit "only has one
> >coder/author" raised as a red flag when I was advocating
> >Hobbit...people ask what will happen if Henrik leaves the scene for any
> >reason.
> 
> When reading the hobbit source code, there are other names
> (for patching/bug fixing) in there also.

The only reason for my leaving the project would be an untimely 
accident. But that can happen, and the only guarantee I can give
you is that the source code will always be available so someone 
else can take over if I am no longer around.

> Looks like Henrik prefer current one-man project approach. 
> more developers more communication efforts needed. 
> It will add another burden to him(with a full time job), I think.

Coordination certainly is easier on one-man projects.

Realistically, Hobbit has grown to a size where there is too much to
do for one person. So I wouldn't mind som help with the coding - I just 
haven't seen anyone step forward yet who is willing to take over part 
of that effort. Also, it would have to be someone whom I trust to be 
competent at what they're doing, and who is willing to maintain their 
code.

(It's not quite true that there are no other developers. Etienne does a
 very fine job of handling all of the Windows client code in BBWin - had
 he not been around, Hobbit would have a serious problem in handling
 Windows-based systems. This is an excellent example of how a specific
 module can be implemented separately).

This is a classic problem with Open Source software, by the way.

Someone in this thread wrote that he was thinking of implementing a new
web front-end. That would be fantastic! I would gladly drop support for
the old static HTML files generated by bbgen in favor of a modernized
web interface. And the web U/I is fairly independent from the rest of
Hobbit, so it is easy to change.



Regards,
Henrik