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All the Perl that's Practical to Extract and Report
--Mark Hahn, <hahn@neurocog.lrdc.pitt.edu>
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Swindle,con,flimflam or honest cluelessness? (Score:1)
"We're almost done with a project that needs just a small cash infusion and mankind everywhere will reap the benefits. We have little (or nothing) to show for 5 years of work but if you trust us -- and send us cash -- we'll come up with something quickly. Please make your checks payable in Nigerian funds..."
Autrijus seems to have cobbled together much of Perl 6 in a couple of weeks. Shouldn't we rather send money to an inspired hacker like t
Re:Swindle,con,flimflam or honest cluelessness? (Score:2)
From nothing? No. From these [perl.org] and these [perl.org] which is part of what has been produced over the past few years. So your We have little (or nothing) to show for 5 years of work is untrue.
I see 12 amounts of $35000. That's a pretty good indication, surely?
They're milestones. You can't start the later ones until you finish
Re:Swindle,con,flimflam or honest cluelessness? (Score:2)
In spite of the harsh words, Mr. No Free Lunch might not be so 'confused' if anyone from behind the magic curtain ever communicated in a clear, concise way what is going on. There hasn't been an Apoc in over a year so, even for those keeping score, it does give you pause as to why there is suddenly all this excitement, especially after seeing what a bright guy can do in 2 weeks.
Last time there was a push for funds it was two years back then, too. When there is nothing but the 'with us or against us' kind
just the facts (Score:1)
Larry is doing Synopses [perl.org] now instead, to speed up the process.
Autrijus' accomplishment [cpan.org] is awesome, but it's not a production system (i.e. something we'd feel comfortable shipping as a replacement for Perl 5). Turning it into a production system would take as much time and effort as finishing off Parrot/PGE/Perl 6.
Re:just the facts (Score:2)
I think people are afraid that they're not going to get any change. People's confidence has been eroded. They're afraid that they're going to give money and not get anything tangible back. I don't think that's necessarily fair, but it's the general f
Re:just the facts (Score:2)
I don't think you're missing anything. It isn't the responsibility of the TPF or any foundation to ensure the livelihood of grant recipients. This isn't charity. There's no text box on the grant application asking for details on how badly you need the money.
I agree that the lack of accountability is astounding. Documentation on deliverables, quality measures, progress reports, lessons learned, noted failures, annual reports - anything would help. Even continued development has deliverables. Don't the grant managers have this kind of information available? Maybe those deliverables are hidden among the discussion of p5p, maybe there's a mail list I don't get, but TPF would do itself a great service by documenting its accomplishments in an accessible place.
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Re:just the facts (Score:1)
I agree. The Conway Channel [perl.org] was nice in that regard. For community-funded projects that produce open source code, regular progress reports seem very reasonable.
Re:just the facts (Score:2)
As one of the grant managers to whom you refer, I would say "yes, I have that information." However, I am not aware that we've clearly discussed how to best disseminate that. And yes, there's a mailing list you're not on and it's a closed list. Of course, it has to be. When "Luminary X" wants to say "what a mind-bogglingly stupid proposal" (and some of them are), that conversation needs to be private so the committe members know they can speak freely and later tell the proposal author that their proposa