New Open Source Project

Jimmy Green greenj-PeCUgM4zDv73fQ9qLvQP4Q at public.gmane.org
Tue Jan 4 16:33:03 UTC 2005


Paul Kozlenko wrote:
> Anybody's help would be appreciated on the topic of starting a new open source 
> project.
> 
[snip]

> 1. If the source code is PHP. There are a number of libraries out there with 
> some nice functions. Can this type of code be included without fear of 
> retaliation?
if it is gpl, you can do with it what you will, but if you want your results
to be gpl, you do with it as the gpl wills

> 2. In most projects that I have looked at there is at least one LICENSE file 
> (GPL agreement). Can I simply use this file together with my project to 
> prevent unorthodox use of the project or parts?
that liscence file is mandatory for conformance to gpl, its a while since i
read it so im not sure if it's presence alone is enough

> 3. If I see some useable code in other GPL projects, can I use the code 
> according to the GPL by simply getting written (email) permission to do so?
everybody benefits if you make dialog/reference(contribution runs both ways)

> 4. If I do get to reuse code, do I have to indicate within the code of my 
> project what lines are reused and from where, or is permission to use (#3) 
> sufficient?
if you gpl it, i think you would do well to do so

> 5. What other considerations or groundwork does anybody suggest before I leap 
> into the world of Open Source project building?
mabye packaging, cvs

I gather that the general gist is, the gpl "stamp of approval" _is_ the prize,
and to truely attain it, one must conform to its technicalities, and spirit,,,
the rewards of said prize speak for themselvs...

also an important consideration in my view is "packaging" the code, as well as
facilitating it's would be contributors with perhaps a cvs repository. if your
project is quite complex on release, good packaging and revision facility may
help to get it out the door towards community adoption

packaging can be tricky however, and is somewhat of a black box in reality,
but if you manage to package it well for one particular distro(perhaps your
fav/flav), then the canvass is primed and stretched

releasing "early and often" is i gather, also quite the magical ingrediant...
my experience goes back to 2001, and for n reasons im holding back on 2 proj's
taking my own advise has caused me to loose out on this point*

* while studying packaging under debian i trashed master superblock on
develpoment drive, and in those days i couldent afford a burner, and e2fsck
hasent helpd, i still gotta mine the cvs repositories manually

-- 
to bring heed and grate to halt try for (ms = -1 ; timetravel(ms) ; ms++) { ; }
if your keyboard is _really_ slow, you should get to the second iteration ...
PS, if X implements better method, endless echo "thanks" ; timetravel 0 <Enter>

Jimmy

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