[Mono-list] Proposal: Monodevelop month of hacking

["C. Bergström"]

Lluis Sanchez wrote:
> El dj 08 de 02 del 2007 a les 12:01 +0200, en/na "C. Bergström" va
> escriure:
>   
> I also like the idea of pushing MD, however, I'd like to know what
> "month of hacking" really should be.
>   
A coordinated effort where we set realistic goals and overall create a 
marketing effort to help achieve those goals.  As they say "the squeaky 
wheel gets oil", so lets make some noise :)  I'm brainstorming on 
specifics and open to suggestions.
> A few months ago a release plan for MonoDevelop was presented, with a
> detailed list of features and fixes we'd like to have for MD 1.0. This
> plan was discussed in the mailing list, it was updated from people's
> feedback, and several people showed interest in helping. But that's all,
> we've got very little contributions so far.
>   
If we've already created a proposal, then that's one more step in the 
right direction.  Like many things I'm sure it partially comes down to a 
numbers game of just getting our message in front of enough people..
> Maybe people is too busy to help (I know some of them are). Maybe it's
> my fault in not being able to encourage new contributors to help. I
> don't know.
>   
As with using any new piece of software... It can be very discouraging 
if the program
    a) Doesn't compile
    b) Crashes on startup
    c) Unstable

I'm not sure how many Mac Mono hackers there are, but in the short bit 
of time I spent on irc. I did see a number of them complain about the 
required dependencies and also that it was pretty unstable.. How many 
hidden Mono Mac users are really out there..?

If we do a fund raiser before the month of hacking. maybe we can get out 
some sort of cash bounty for hardest working hacker, certain bugs, 
certain features or whatever else may come to mind to motivate people.

> So, what do you think a "month of hacking" should really be? As a
> potential project contributor, what would make a difference to you, so
> you would decide to start helping? Which information would you expect
> the wiki you propose to have? Which commitments should we (regular
> project maintainers) take in order to help you and other contributors
> during this month? (maybe provide more internal (documentation?, maybe
> more support on irc/mailing list?). I'm asking for specific ideas,
> because just declaring a "month of hacking" won't magically bring more
> hackers.
>   
All this will really require a much more indepth conversation, thought 
and through planning.  More coming later..


C.