Dear Dev's,
did you recognized this study?
<https://peerj.com/preprints/1233v1.pdf>
Here is a german articel about the study
<http://www.heise.de/open/meldung/Studie-Wichtige-GitHub-Projekte-von-einzelnen-Entwicklern-abhaengig-2752849.html>
They analysed the "Truck Factor" of some GitHub projects.
This means how many developers need to be wounded or killed by a Truck
(alternativly a "Bus") to stop the project.
WxPython isn't in that list because it isn't one of the most popular
GitHub projects.
But I described the problem in the past. This project is to important
but depends on to less developer's.
So the question should be what need to happen to this project to bring
more active and (in emergency situations) maintaining developers to it?
Dear Dev's,
did you recognized this study?
<https://peerj.com/preprints/1233v1.pdf>
Here is a german articel about the study
<Studie: Wichtige GitHub-Projekte von einzelnen Entwicklern abhängig | heise online;
They analysed the "Truck Factor" of some GitHub projects.
This means how many developers need to be wounded or killed by a Truck
(alternativly a "Bus") to stop the project.
WxPython isn't in that list because it isn't one of the most popular
GitHub projects.
But I described the problem in the past. This project is to important
but depends on to less developer's.
So the question should be what need to happen to this project to bring
more active and (in emergency situations) maintaining developers to it?
Pretty much the same thing that needs to happen for any open source project without a steady source of funding. Find a way to get people so passionate about the project that they're willing to spend copious amounts of their free time working on it with no compensation aside from the occasional thank you. If they have a day job, it basically means they'll be devoting their nights and weekends to the project, leaving them very little time to relax or deal with their other responsibilities. For these reasons, often the ideal group of contributors for open source projects is high school / college kids, who have more time, tend to have less responsibilities like families to take care of, and can use the project as a learning experience. This group tends to be drawn towards projects that seem cutting edge or super cool, though, as they want to build something modern and 'fresh', meaning mature projects needing "boring" maintenance and improvements tend not to attract them too much.
I think this pretty much explains why most open source projects have a Truck Factor of 1 or 2.
Regards,
Kevin
···
On Jul 19, 2015, at 12:45 AM, <c.buhtz@posteo.jp> <c.buhtz@posteo.jp> wrote:
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The anti-truck factor (i.e. the ambulance factor) would be you-tube
tutorial videos or effbot or source code with more explanatory comments
then actual code. Also tool installation and project build scripts can be
confusing or hurdles to people who would help if they weren't loaded with
acronyms and abbreviations in spades.
For example imagine if there was but ONE link to install a wxPheonix
developer environment, instead of pip -install -u blabla yadda yadda, but
first install certain version of Python with an up-to-date pip and know
Github, be aware of proper OS downloads and potential conflicts for
multiple projects (virtualenv), download, read and study the demo code,
etc. etc.
To pull in new people you need interesting things, such as what
-current/new- apps are using the "project". Take a look at how MMORPG.com
does this with new games for example. The Unity Engine and Blender lure new
talent by showcasing things selectively, kinda of like a
Message-Of-The-Day. Panda3D and BoaConstructor started that way but never
showcases anything new. So those two projects look like zombies.
Python itself is a good example of how to have a high truck factor. Guido
gained a title, BDFL, but intentionally receeded to let the "generals" of
the time step forward. This leaves Python as a project with a leader but
whom is not himself the "lead", there is a foundation with "leads" a.k.a
"experts".
I believe the forums for wxPython and the fact that Robin contributes to it
and zetcode and "The mouse vs. the python" blog and the books and the
project's target functionality keeps wxPython alive. I think the AUI/AGW
gave wxPython a shot of adrenaline, Pubsub lengthified wxPython, and I had
hopes that Editra would draw a crowd.
I agree though that ever newer sparklies (aka fancy widgets or tools) are
useful to attract or inspire new contributors.