John
Good luck, and thanks for all the work over the years!
gerry
On Fri, Aug 7, 2015 at 8:45 PM, John Caron <caron@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Thanks much Ben. See you on the other side.
>
> On Fri, Aug 7, 2015 at 2:29 PM, Ben Domenico <bendomenico@xxxxxxxxx>
> wrote:
>
>> Thanks for the very thoughtful and thought provoking farewell note.
>>
>> Godspeed, John Caron.
>>
>> -- Ben
>>
>> On Fri, Aug 7, 2015 at 1:06 PM, John Caron <caron@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>
>>> Today on my last day at Unidata, I want to add a few thoughts about the
>>> future of THREDDS and netCDF.
>>>
>>> Software lives and dies by the ability of its users to get questions
>>> answered and bugs fixed and possibly features added. While support from
>>> Unidata is solid, it is by no means guaranteed. Its crucial that we
>>> continue to foster and develop a community of contributors to THREDDS and
>>> netCDF from outside Unidata. Since I am now becoming one, these issues
>>> are front and center for me.
>>>
>>> 1) For software revision control and making contributions easy, I think
>>> we are in good shape. Workflows using git have made a huge difference
>>> everywhere in Open Source Software (OSS) in the last several years. Unidata
>>> now has all of its important software source code publicly available on
>>> github. Of course theres always much more that could be done to document
>>> code and design decisions.
>>>
>>> 2) For question asking / answering I think we need to move away from
>>> private conversations using esupport, and use public forums where all can
>>> read and contribute to the conversation. Here are my recommendations:
>>>
>>> - Use the mailing lists (thredds@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx,
>>> netcdf-java@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx) for (almost) all questions about using
>>> the software. These conversations are public so that everyone may benefit
>>> from seeing what questions are being asked and answered, and also to
>>> share
>>> their own experiences or to provide answers.
>>> -
>>> - Use the private esupport ticket system (
>>> support-thredds@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx,
>>> support-netcdf-java@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx) only for sensitive matters
>>> that need to be private (even then, if you dont want the question
>>> publically archived, you have to say that in the ticket). Note that
>>> others
>>> (for example me), wont read or comment on your conversation.
>>> -
>>> - Use GitHub issues (https://github.com/Unidata/thredds/issues) if
>>> you are using the source code in some way, eg sending pull requests, or
>>> for
>>> questions/comments about the source code.
>>> -
>>> - Its also possible to use stack exchange (eg
>>> http://stackexchange.com/search?q=thredds), but we dont yet have a
>>> clear workflow around that. Id like to see a specific stack exchange
>>> forum
>>> become the place for all scientic data formats / access protocols (HDF,
>>> netCDF, opendap, OGC, CF, etc). We need a critical mass for this to work.
>>> It would be good if stack exchange or some spin-off would specialize in
>>> software support.
>>>
>>>
>>> 3) Issue tracking in JIRA is ok for now (
>>> https://bugtracking.unidata.ucar.edu/browse/TDS), though maybe github
>>> could be used. We need a system for allowing non-Unidata users to add
>>> issues and comment on existing issues.
>>>
>>> 4) Static analysis with Coverity (
>>> https://scan.coverity.com/projects/388?tab=overview) is very useful for
>>> code quality checking, and is free for OSS.
>>>
>>> 5) Unit testing and Continuous Integration (CI) are not completely
>>> solved problems. We use Jenkins and Travis, but these are not public
>>> (Jenkins) or complete (Travis). The THREDDS group is continuing to
>>> investigate long term, public, scaleable solutions for this.
>>>
>>> In summary, software development tools and infrastructure have become
>>> much more mature and rich in the last 10 years. OSS has coalesced around
>>> certain technologies like git and stack exchange. Im looking forward to
>>> the continued evolution of this ecosystem in the next 10 years. We as a
>>> community want to track best practices and evolve along with it.
>>>
>>> John
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> thredds mailing list
>>> thredds@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>>> For list information or to unsubscribe, visit:
>>> http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/mailing_lists/
>>>
>>
>>
>
> _______________________________________________
> netcdf-java mailing list
> netcdf-java@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> For list information or to unsubscribe, visit:
> http://www.unidata.ucar.edu/mailing_lists/
>
--
Gerry Creager
NSSL/CIMMS
405.325.6371
++++++++++++++++++++++
“Big whorls have little whorls,
That feed on their velocity;
And little whorls have lesser whorls,
And so on to viscosity.”
Lewis Fry Richardson (1881-1953)
