[Systers-dev] Porting Dlist to Mailman3

[kanika vats]

Hi All,
I was thinking about what all things we need to keep in mind,what steps need
to be taken,what should be our short term or immediate goals and what
 should be our long term goals,what use cases we need to think of and for
which situation with respect to Porting Dlist feature to Mailman3 project.It
will be great If all of us contribute to this thread.

To get discussion started I will start with basic things (many of the points
are what Jennifer had mentioned in the previous mail to Barry and what I
think needs to be done):

1)*MAKE A WIKI PAGE*
It was great to see the positive reply that Barry gave to Jennifer's
mail.According to his reply we will need to make a wiki page for the
project.We need to tell what Dlist is all about and what advantages and
flexibility it brings for the subscribers of a list.We also need to work on
use cases.Besides general explanation of Dlist feature,It will be great if
we can give some brief insight on how Dlist works internally ie. about all
additional Dlist files added to Mailman and their core function.This should
be the top most priority as this wiki page will not only help Mailman people
understand how things have been implemented but will also give a clearer
picture to all those who get involved in the project.

*2)**ASSIGN COPYRIGHT TO THE FSF*
This was told by Barry I am just repeating again here on systers-dev list :
 All contributors will have to assign copyright to the FSF for us to be
allowed to incorporate it.  This page explains how to start the process:

http://wiki.list.org/display/DEV/GNU+copyright+assignment+request+form

*3)UNDERSTAND MAILMAN3*
To take a look at Mailman3 code understand what new improvements have been
made over the old version.How can we fit in Dlist code to Mailman3 what all
changes we need to make(This is where we might need help of Mailman
developers).

In our present Systers Mailman code we extract the information we need from
pickle files.If Mailman3 does not use pickle files and are using database
instead then we will need to reflect similar changes on our code and perhaps
lot more like including the changes to the Mailman 3.0 RESTful interface for
integration to work.

*4)CREATE A BRANCH IN LAUNCHPAD*
To create a branch in launchpad with a copy of Mailman3's development code
which also reflects the changes that are being made by Mailman developers
during the project time.So that we can make all our commits to that branch
and also update code side by side with changes made by Mailman developers
and have least problems in merging the code with the main branch in the end.

*5)GIVE THE PROCESS A STRONG START*
Soon after the Student Applications result is declared,to hold an irc
meeting where all can discuss their Dlist knowledge and help the new student
and others visualize a clear line of difference between original Mailman
code and Systers Dlist addition to it.We probably need to know while working
on Dlist which part of Mailman were Systers developers concerned with and
what part of code or information was used/modified.If we get this picture
clear in the beginning that how Dlist was added to original Mailman code and
how this extension was made then perhaps our task of integrating it with
Mailman3 will become much simpler.

*6)START WORK ON MAIN DLIST INTEGRATION*(Post final selection process and
pre Mid-Term evaluation)
Our goal should be to wrap up major integration part and get involved in
first round of testing before Midterm Evaluation Deadline.

*7)WORK ON LIST UPGRADATION AND ITS INTEGRATION*(Post Mid-Term Evaluation)
>From Barry's reply it becomes clear that we will have to work on upgradation
part too(ie upgrading oldlists to Dlist).What I think is that integrating
Dlists to Mailman should be our first priority,but at the same time someone
can work on writing the upgradation script that runs well with Systers
Mailman code.As Robin pointed out,many corner cases will have to be
considered and good use cases should be made.Once we have worked on getting
Dlist feature integrated with Mailman3 and Mailman people have worked on
their upgradation script as well,then we can integrate our upgradation
script with theirs.

*8)DOCUMENTATION AND TESTING FOR MAILMAN3/REMOVAL OF BUGS*(Post Midterm
Evaluation)
Soon after complete integration process start with documentation and
testing.

Let me know If some major things that needs to be done are missing.Any new
objectives or issues to be considered are welcome.Since I have no clue on
how Upstreaming in Open Source is carried out some good views on how the
process should take place and when and where we need to get in touch with
Mailman developers and what role will they play, would be great.

Thanks,

-- 
Best Regards
Kanika Vats