[Pipet Users] Is Narval the AIL Piper may need ?

[J.W. Bizzaro]

Karl-Max Wagner wrote:
> 
> I propose that everyone prepares this stuff in HTMLized form,
> bundles it up and submits it for having it put up somewhere on
> the piper site. This is much more comprehensive than spattering
> it all about the net.

We can put it in the docs directory of the Piper website.  I actually have the
whole website in CVS, so anyone with write access can contribute.

Speaking of which (Nicolas also asked about CVS access), the best way to go
about getting access (which means getting a shell account) is to join The Open
Lab, our SourceForge-based project management system:

    http://bioinformatics.org

Then, contact me (jeff at bioinformatics.org) and tell me that you are ready to
be added to the project.  When I add you, the system (admins actually) gives
you a shell account.  You'll then have CVS access.

Right now, we have the following developers in the system (everyone should
have a shell account):

                            bizzaro
                            bossekr
                            chapmanb
                            gears
                            gmax
                            jarl
                            jmvalin
                            theoriste 

https://bioinformatics.org/project/?group_id=19

> Chances are even that we fail. I could easily point to projects
> that are not getting anywhere because they apparently stopped
> understanding what they want to do.

I like to think that the number one reason Free/Open projects fail is lost
interest by the primary developers.  Many of these guys just "move on", but it
may be that they "stopped understanding what they want to do", as Karl-Max
said, and that caused them to lose interest.

> In any project, the concept phase is the most important one.
> Mistakes in the concept phase are from difficult to impossible
> to correct in subsequent development. I have seen that only too
> often.

Oh yes, I agree with that!  Piper has spent years in the "concept phase", and
it is probably still there.  If we just plowed ahead from day one (assuming we
didn't have to wait to find each other) and finished the project in a couple
months, we would not have been able to include many of the concepts developed
later.  And they may not have ever been includable.  But, how long is too long
for the concept phase? ;-)

Cheers.
Jeff
-- 
J.W. Bizzaro                                           jeff at bioinformatics.org
Director, Bioinformatics.org: The Open Lab     http://bioinformatics.org/~jeff
"All those scientists--they're all alike!  They say they're working for us,
but what they really want is to rule the world!" 
  -- Angry Villager, Young Frankenstein
--