Features soup: another county heard from

LTLFTC.

First some credentials, I have been managing strictly software
projects for many years now.  I have used most of the available (and
some no longer available) project management tools.  I am currently
coming up to speed on GTK2 so that I can start contributing to
projects like MRProject.

And here is my two cents worth...

If we concentrate on the file format and extend it to support
everything, then we can write independant tools which share the file
format.  For example, I have just spent three hours in a tedious
meeting working through the detailed task breakdown for a project.  I
have lots of notes and now I need to enter all of this into MRProject
so that I can start the planning process.  Since I don't like MR
Project's task entry form when I am entering tasks in bulk I fire up
Dudley's Task Breakdown Super Program.  The details of the interface
don't matter, because it was designed by me to enter tasks from notes
the way that I do things, but I can use it because it uses the same
file format.  Once the task breakdown has been entered, I can fireup
MRProject and start planning.

As long as we all use the same file format, we can share all the
tools.  If I actually design a TBD entry tool that I think is better
than MRProject, I can share it.  Likewise for all the other tools.
The key is to make sure that the file format is open and extensible
and XML is ideal for this.

So what I see as the "correct" compromise is to create in MRProject a
project planning tool that is good for about 80% of the tasks that go
into project planning.  Then attack the remaining 20% with external
tools which would only be used by people who needed that specific
functionality.

An alternative to this is the loadable module approach.  We could
depend on GLibs loadable module routines to create a system in which
you can add lots of modules to the basic tool.  I think that this is
more work than the increased sense of having an integrated tool is
worth, but you may disagree.

Dudley Irish