[Caml-list] Re: how could the community help with Oasis-DB; towards a CPAN for OCaml?

[Sylvain Le Gall <sylvain@le-gall.net>]

Hello,

On 10-12-2011, Gabriel Scherer <gabriel.scherer@gmail.com> wrote:
> Edgar, It's excellent to know that you have some knowledge of Oasis-DB.
>
> I share the common assumption that this is one of the missing bricks
> of the OCaml ecosystem, and I hope the community at large can help
> with it. I asked Sylvain about it a few months ago, but he wasn't sure
> at that time what was the best way to help. With him now having less
> time available, I was afraid things could stall on that front.
>

Well things is now less stalled than before my new job. I have pushed a
couple of patches in oasis darcs repository and I am working to deliver
a oasis 0.2.1 sooner or later.

> Could you (or Sylvain) make a more precise picture of how exactly the
> community could help in the Oasis-DB effort?

See above.

>
> Is the priority to upload package (then maybe the warning on the
> webpage advising not to do it seriously should be changed), or are
> there other things we could help with, for example development
> aspects? 

You can upload packages to the server. They won't be lost. The main
point of the dev server DB is for the OCaml community to see if the
service is useful. I won't commit myself into delivering a long term
production server if nobody thinks it is useful.

Helping me to debug by uploading package to oasis-db has 4 "good" effects:
- you use oasis in you project and you can debug it/help me improve it
- you allow other projects to use your package to test oasis-db (e.g odb.ml)
- you increase the visibility of oasis-db and people gradually thinks it
  is a good solution
- it cheers me (ok seems like dumb, but that motivates)

Concerning the dev. aspect see above.

> Who/where should we ask for advice/help when we have issues?

Either you can create a bug in the BTS (or a feature request), send a
mail to oasis-devel@lists.forge.ocamlcore.org, have a
chat on #ocaml IRC on freenode (more and more people are able to answer
your question on OASIS here) or send me an email. This should be the
last option because the discussion won't be public.

> It would really help, I think, if:
> - there was a list somewhere of things other people can contribute

Well there is:
http://oasis.forge.ocamlcore.org/contribute.html

> - you talked more about the progress of the effort (I discovered
> 'odb.ml' by absolute chance a few weeks ago, while I follow almost all
> OCaml-related information channels); if people don't know about your
> work, they won't contribute

odb.ml was started by thelema and it remains his project, I let him
communicate on that. But you can see on the home page of oasis-db a link
to odb.ml that directs to an explanation of what it is (Section
"Installing packages from OASIS-DB"). 

I think in general oasis probably needs a better press coverage... Will
try to improve this aspect.

So concerning other help:

For dvlpt:
- if you want to work on the core oasis or oasis-db, here is a short
  list of possible tasks:
    - bug/feature fixing for oasis v0.2.1:
      https://forge.ocamlcore.org/tracker/index.php?group_id=54&atid=291&power_query=1&query_id=21&run
      https://forge.ocamlcore.org/tracker/index.php?group_id=54&atid=294&power_query=1&query_id=23&run
    - other bug/feature fixing for oasis (browser and pick the one you
      want)
    - find a way to express C dependencies (pkg-config, .h files ?)
    - find a way to use syntax extension (Modules: Foo (syntax: camlp4o,
      camlp4.macro), Bar ?)
- if you want to work on external projects:
  - work on a oasis2rpm tools (like oasis2debian)
  - work on a oasis2godi tools (like oasis2debian and ~ GODIVA)
  - work on a oasis-db plugin that get the version of OCaml package
    available in Fedora, Arch Linux, Gentoo (it exists for GODI, Debian)

For communication:
- if you want to improve the designe of the current oasis-db/oasis
  website, I welcome your idea
- I need reviewer for the content of oasis.forge.ocamlcore.org and
  oasis.ocamlcore.org to spot obvious grammatical bugs/bad english
- if you are good at blogging, I need your help to write a series of
  articles how to use oasis in your ocaml project. The best is to tell
  your story about how you apply successfully oasis to your project or
  how it helps you.

Cheers,
Sylvain Le Gall
-- 
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