As an unofficial test, just to see if it gets any traction, I've
created ROSWishes.com. Use it as you see fit.
-David!!

On Mon, Jul 23, 2012 at 6:41 PM, Bill Smart <smartw@engr.orst.edu> wrote:
>> Is ROS meant to be a single, cohesive software project with
>> distributed development teams working on various parts of it? In this
>> case, I think that centralised ticket management makes sense - but it
>> also requires someone to sit at the centre and maintain that
>> infrastructure.
>>
>> Is ROS meant to be an operating system style thing with lots of
>> independent packages developed by independent teams? In this case,
>> then the current approach should be maintained, and we must accept its
>> warts, working around them as appropriate.
>
> I think Geoff captures part of the argument nicely with this analogy,
> and I mostly agree with him that the second option is better.
> However, it's a bit more complicated, since the linux ecosystem
> consists (mostly) of a bunch of applications.  If one of them gets
> orphaned, then it doesn't affect (m)any of the others.  If I use one
> that stops working, or doesn't have bugs fixed, then I can move to
> another application that does the same thing more-or-less with
> impunity.  ROS, on the other hand, is an ecosystem of components that
> are inherently more inter-related.  If something critical is orphaned,
> it can cause ripple problems through your entire system.  A recent
> example of this might be the kinect drivers in fuerte.  Also, for many
> of the important packages, there is no (viable) alternative.
>
>> I think that Thibault's idea is the best approach we could take right
>> now. Giving people the information they need to make an informed
>> choice of packages is more useful than trying to kickstart back into
>> development a package that does not necessarily need it. I often use
>> Wikipedia's "Last release date" information when choosing amongst
>> alternatives for a piece of software.
>
> I also agree with this, but I also think that some larger-scale
> ordering is needed.  Some way to see which packages are well-used,
> currently maintained, looking for help, etc would be very useful, I
> think.
>
> -- Bill
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