Re: Team Collaboration Considerations

[Janne Blomqvist <blomqvist.janne@gmail.com>]

On Sun, Dec 4, 2022 at 5:53 AM Jerry D via Fortran <fortran@gcc.gnu.org> wrote:
>  1. Slack has adopted some limitations on being able to go back and look
>     at older posts.  Functionally it is quite good and integrates well
>     with github.
>  2. I looked at Element and Fractal which use the Matrix protocols.
>     Very open source, not so mature yet.
>  3. Mattermost looks pretty good and was easy to set up.  The free
>     version is a bit better than Slacks. GCC C++ uses it.
>
> If we can get a concensus I would happy to get something set up .  I am
> leaning to Mattermost.  The mobile phone app is easy and the web browser
> works fine.
>
> I do think in the long run, doing this will help everyone greatly.
>
> Any thoughts from all?

Hi,

I haven't commented earlier as I haven't been active in GFortran
development for a couple of years (new job, kids, etc. etc.). So don't
take my opinions too seriously.

But in general, yes, I do think IRC is showing its age in an
increasingly multi-device and mobile world. From a Free Software
perspective, adopting a closed platform like Slack is perhaps not
ideal, if alternatives exist. And I believe the free (as in beer)
version of Slack has some significant limitations compared to the
licensed one. Matrix is perhaps the one with the most future
potential, but maybe it's not really there yet. While I haven't used
Mattermost myself, I've heard good things about it. And as long as
it's not used as some sort of permanent record of things instead of
the mailing list, I guess it's relatively easy to switch to another
platform in the future. Just to be sure, this is some hosted version,
and not something which Jerry must maintain himself on some server in
a dusty corner?

As for the perennial question of how to attract new contributors,
yeah, it's hard. I'm happy to see that Harald has gotten off to a
flying start, amazing! I also do note with some satisfaction that
there's some good efforts to make modern Fortran attractive for
developers, and not just something you use because the codebase you
work on was started 4 decades ago. Gtk-Fortran was an early example of
this which showed that modern Fortran could be useful outside the core
numerics domain. I'm also thinking of the https://fortran-lang.org
site and associated efforts like the 'stdlib', a more fleshed out
'standard' library (https://stdlib.fortran-lang.org/ ), and the
package manager FPM (https://fpm.fortran-lang.org ). Keeping in touch
with these people, and suggesting that people help that effort if they
aren't comfortable with hacking on the compiler outright, could be a
way of growing the open source Fortran programmer base, which could
eventually grow into contributors to the compiler itself? In
particular if they want to use some newfangled Fortran feature that
doesn't work in GFortran; scratching your own itch is always a good
motivator!

-- 
Janne Blomqvist