Lisp Code Sharing

[cartier@math.uqam.ca]

In just one day I received lots of support for a Lisp Code Sharing
project so I will go on and make it a reality!

One of the things upon which the project depends is its total
automation (nobody can be expected to give 10 hours every week
and even more if the project grows bigger). And what is great
(and decided me to start all this) is that all the automation
can be done with MCL code (we will even be able to share the
archive manager code !!!). This is made possible by the wonderful
Columbia AppleTalk Package which makes a Unix machine into an
AppleShare file server. Maybe even the management of electronic
mail could be done in MCL via the Post Office Protocol, MacTCP and
a MCL<->MacTCP interface (could anybody with experience in one of
these contact me).

In the next weeks, I will start writing the MCL code to manage
this project. This will give time to everybody to receive and
enjoy there MCL2.0 (including me!) and also time for people to
send me there suggestions, criticisms, advises, etc...

A first draft proposal follows:

  The MCL world wide code sharing archive could be structured in the
  following way at the top level:

    README          For new people that come to this archive.
    help/           Some file describing in more detail the archive.
    incoming/       A writable directory where to put new versions
                    of projects (respecting the format described
                    later).

    Subject directories (ex: math/ system/ i-o/ graphism/ game/ ...)

  Each of the subject directories would contain projects. Each project
  should be a directory containing: (a lot of this structuring is to
  help the automation of the management of the archive and would also
  help people know details of the project without having to ftp the
  whole project itself).

    README          Brief description of the project.
    DESCRIPTION     Long description of the project.
    VERSION         Version number (should be a x.y number).
    STAGE           One of alpha, beta or completed.
    DEPENDENCIES    A list of the other projects upon which this project
                    depend to work properly (kind of required modules).
    AUTHORS         Mailing list of the project's authors.
    CONTRIBUTORS    Mailing list of the project's contributers.
    USERS           Mailing list of the project's users (who get
                    automaticaly a mail message when there's a new
                    version of the project) (this will take a lot
                    of load off the archive, the users of a project
                    not having to ftp every now and then to know
                    if there is a newer version!).
    <project>       The MCL project which should be stuffed by stuffit
1.5.1
                    and in binhex format. The name of this file should be
                    the same as the name of the project's directory.

The global mailing lists of the archive could be

  mcl-requests      Requests to be on one of the mailing lists.
  mcl-management    Talks about the management of the archive.
  mcl-projects      Announcements related to new projects. This is where
                    you mail to announce that you would like to start (or
                    complete) a new project. People interested in
cooperating
                    (or having already done the coding) would know about
                    your project from this mailing list.

That is all for now folks.
Please email suggestions, criticisms, advises, etc... directly to me.

Guillaume Cartier
LACIM, Universite du Quebec a Montreal.
Bureau: (514) 987-4290
E-Mail: cartier@math.uqam.ca