[Systers-dev] Porting Dlist to Mailman3

[Robin Jeffries]

Excellent list, Kanika Vats.

While I think your first priority ought to be to get your proposal done, if
you can make an initial start at the wiki page, either as part of your
proposal (if you think this is useful to help you think about the proposal)
or right after that, it would be useful to everyone.  It also might be
useful to have some discussions on this list about how the migration from a
list that has a "non-dlist past" would work -- I think that's very tricky,
and might be the crux of the whole summer's work.

While there are a lot of corner cases we have to get to eventually, I think
the first hard question is: suppose I have a list that has been going on for
5 years.  People are used to sending to list at domain.com or using reply-all.
 Today we move to dlists.  If I want to start a new conversation, I send to
"list+new at domain.com <list%2Bnew at domain.com>".  But what happens if I reply
to a message that is in my inbox?  How will that work (both in the sense of
what the user has to do, but also what happens in the database)?  We could
be pretty lax, but then people will never learn the convention of sending to
"list+new".  Or we could make everything an implicit conversation, which
might cause the entire list to come to a halt for a while, as no one know
where to send their email to.  What are the other options?

I can nudge the right people to submit the copyright assignment forms.  I
think this is Ellen Spertus, me, Andy Grover, Anna Grannud, you, and
Malveeka.  I think that will cover everyone who I know of who has worked on
the code.

Thoughts by others?

Robin

On Thu, Apr 1, 2010 at 3:05 PM, kanika vats <kanika.krikan at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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
>