Joining the DotGNU Efforts
Please subscribe at
http://dotgnu.org/mailman/listindo/developers
and post to the list, introducing yourself.
Don't Read Unpublished Microsoft Information
In order to avoid falling into any legal traps, please be extremely
careful to avoid reading any unpublished information from Microsoft.
We have obtained
legal
advice concerning the issue of looking at Microsoft's "shared source"
Rotor code.
Choosing a development project to join
Read the list of active development projects
and find one that interests you. Then start contributing :-)
New DotGNU Components
If you have the necessary skills, and enough available time, you are
able to start a new DotGNU development project. Please do this only
if you're sure that you will want to keep working on the new project
until it reaches maturity.
Ideas and Missing Pieces
Here are some ideas for functionality that might be good to add to DotGNU
but which isn't being actively worked on. Ideas like this are discussed
on the
visionaries
mailing list as long as they're not actively being implemented.
Support for Java bytecode
The invention of the new language C# is a strategic move of
Microsoft against the successful Java language. (It seems that
Microsoft wants to fight against everything that is successful
and not under the control of Microsoft). DotGNU wants to support
Java and the various languages that can be compiled to Java
bytecode, so we need a JVM implementation for the DotGNU Platform.
DotGNU Virtual Identities
DotGNU probably needs a totally decentralized
authentication / personal information system that can compete with
Microsoft's "Passport" system and with Sun's "Liberty Alliance".
What Projects Can Become Part of DotGNU?
Proposals will be evaluated in the light of the overall objectives
of the DotGNU project:
- Uphold the standards and ethical principles of the GNU project.
- DotGNU must be a solution to the
vendor lock-in problem for
webservices.
- Within the constraints 1. and 2., cooperate as much as
possible with other projects.
- Within the constraints 1., 2. and 3., do whatever it takes to
make DotGNU a winner.
The DotGNU project has some organisational
principles which are designed to give most if not all of the benefits
of a constitutional democracy without the organisational overhead. Based
on these principles, use of the DotGNU mailing lists, irc channel and wiki
is not restricted to the official DotGNU development projects
only. The freedom for everyone to work on whatever they consider to be
important, and what has to do with creating a successful webservices
platform which is founded on the GNU philosophy is considered to be
more important than which projects are officially part of DotGNU and GNU.
Frequently Asked Questions
I'm starting a development project. What name should I use?
Just use any name of your choice. When your project has been
accepted into DotGNU, you can call it "<Projectname>, a Project of
DotGNU". Therefore it is not necessary for your
Savannah project
name to contain the string "dotgnu".
What are the requirements for starting a DotGNU development project?
You need to make a commitment to putting your code under the GNU
General Public License, possibly with linking exceptions as
appropriate.
Also you need to make sure that there are no legal hooks on the
software that would prevent it from being truly Free Software.
In particular, if you have patents that are related to your
development project, you need to make them available through a
free patent license. If you have applied for patents which have not
been granted yet, you need to make a contractual commitment to
making these patents available through such a free patent license if
they are granted.
Trademark rights on the name of a program do not prevent the program
from being Free Software. However, if the program becomes part of
DotGNU, we will want to be able to grant commercial distributors of
DotGNU software the permanent license to use the trademark. In
order to do that, we need to have a permanent license ourselves. So
we would decline to include the program as a part of DotGNU without
such a trademark license.
For programs which are intended to be used by end-users, you need
to think about making the program useful also to computer users
with disabilities. These thougths should be summarized in a
"Disability Impact Statement" like the following example:
Disability Impact Statement
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The DotGNU Secure Execution Environment (SEE) is the part
of the webservices system where client-side components of
webservices are executed; this includes in particular the
parts of the program which implement the user interface.
Support for assistive devices for disabled users is provided by
specialized SEE plugins. Each of these plugins provides an API
for one assistive device; the plugin can also be used without
the assistive device in a simulation mode that allows
(non-disabled) software developers to easily get a first
impression of the user experience of any given program for
disabled users.
Your comments please...
You are invited to add your comments concerning this
at the appropriate
page of the DotGNU Wiki