Re: Thoughts about GNUstep

Gryllida,

On Fri, May 1, 2026 at 6:29 AM Gryllida <[email protected]> wrote:

>
> Hi Gregory and all,
>
> This message is me thinking out loud and is not fully polished. I will try
> my best to explain.
>
> I think there is one missing item on the list of paths to success, that
> is, human interactions. That also includes private interactions also as
> mailing list is not always suitable for everything. Three sides that I am
> seeing in this.
>
> 1. Having some ways to drag new developers to be engaged with existing
> developers. Quarterly meetings are helpful but I do not even know when they
> are, in my time zone. It could help to setup some space where people may
> create a one paragraph bio, link to their codes, how they can be contacted
> (chat, email, google hangout, mumble, discord) and what they either can
> help with or would like to get help with, and their time zones. I have been
> itching to make a few apps but I never did, because irc is most comfortable
> for me to use, but is lacking a structure or enthusiasm.
>

I agree with this, I believe we need to find a better way to engage with
new potential developers.  I have long held the belief that mailing lists
are outdated and not necessarily the best way to go.  If you look at other
projects, swift for example, as well as others they are using forums.  IRC
is also outdated... while it is near and dear to many of our hearts, again
it is not accessible or even known to the current crop of developers out
there.  To them it seems ancient.


> 2. I emailed Gregory privately on two occasions and received no reply. The
> role of a leader is people comms too, and being proactive with it. If you
> are not interested, then nominate someone else for the role of coordinating
> communications while you are leading the development.
>

I appreciate the feedback on this and I apologize for missing your emails.
I will definitely try to be more proactive.  Having been the lead on many
projects professionally, I can tell you from experience (and, indeed,
failure... from which you learn more :)) that the role of a leader, aside
from communication is *delegation*.  You must know when you don't do
something well.  This is why many we have multiple maintainers for
different sections of the project: Fred is more qualified to do the GUI
work than I am, Richard is more qualified to do the Base/Foundation work
than I am.  I have been and still, mainly, am the person responsible for
Gorm and xcodebuild/buildtool.  As lead I am only the "point of contact"
for the project.

I have looked at your emails while writing this and I will respond to the
ones I believe you're referring to.   No excuses, though... I have been
dealing with some pressing health issues that have been going on for some
years.  I will detail that to the group in a separate email.

To address the larger point, it might be useful to consider having someone
whose sole purpose is marketing and communication.  This strategy has been
done before on projects such as Haiku, so we should at least consider that.


>
> 3. I saw mails about meetings but never saw meeting minutes being posted
> via email. That may be just me but I simply do not recall what was
> happening here in last 5 years apart from a few apps being released and a
> few new iterations of a desktop that is based on gnustep. Those were
> discussed for like a week and tgen seemingly died. People interactions may
> be ongoing but are poorly exposed and as an outsider I do not know who is
> doing what currently.
>
>
The meeting recordings are being posted on my youtube channel.  It's
challenging to create minutes for everything... the meeting recordings are
here:  https://www.youtube.com/@gnustep

The minutes are actually being taken by nextcomputers.org.  I saw them post
them once here, so you may be able to find it on the list.  I have
considered using an automatic transcriber, but it might get confused as
some people have different accents that the AI might not be able to
understand.


> Hope that this perspective is vaguely helpful, and I am open to further
> duscussion if you like.
>
> -- Gryllida
>

Yours, GC

-- 
Gregory Casamento
GNUstep Lead Developer / Black Lotus, Principal Consultant
http://www.gnustep.org - http://heronsperch.blogspot.com
https://www.openhub.net/languages/objective_c