Re: project proto proposals

[Tarik FDIL <tfdil at sagma dot ma>]

Dear Gregg,

My answer is about your first suggestion.

I think we should focus on Linux/Unix, since :

- There is no need to support arabic in other operating systems, but in linux 
there is a lot of work to do. So, Linux should remain our primary 
developpement environnement. Now if our products could be easily adapted to 
other operating systems, whye not ? 

- Binary portability is impossible. Full source portability is an illusion. 
You should always adapt your program to a concrete operating system, library, 
tools, etc. So, first lets work on linux and then adapt for other 
environnements if needed. 

- 100% of arabeye's projetcs are designed for linux/unix. So the day when we 
would have 50% of our projects running on other operating systems, we could 
discuss the proposal of expanding Arabeyes'scope. 

UMHO of course !

Tarik

Le Mercredi 12 Octobre 2005 13:29, Gregg Reynolds a écrit :
> Hi all,
>
> I have two suggestions.
>
> First is to expand the scope of Arabeyes from Linux/Unix to Free/Open
> software.  Many (probably most) of us will not have the option of using
> Linux/Unix, at least not at work, no matter how well it supports Arabic.
>   But we do have the option of using Arabic-enabled applications on
> Windows.
>
> So I propose that Arabeyes change from "The Arabic Unix Project" to
> something like "The Project for Free/Open Computing in Arabic".  The
> operating system should not be the focus; after all, these days many if
> not most open source projects are OS agnostic, and usually even end up
> supporting Windows.  The focus should be first on Arabic support, and
> second on portability.
>
> For end-users, the Arabeyes proposal then becomes "no matter what your
> operating system is, we can help you compute in Arabic with free/open
> software, and most of it will be cross-platform as well, so that you can
> later switch to a different OS and your computing environment will look
> the ssame."  For developers, the proposal is "we can help you enable
> Arabic support regardless of your target OS, and we'll also help you
> make sure your app is portable across OS's."
>
> Now my second proposal is a little more concrete.  I've been looking
> into RDF since last winter, and although I'm still learning it looks
> like a very promising and useful technology.  (Lots of RDF info at
> http://www.w3.org; I recommend the Primer at
> http://www.w3.org/2000/10/swap/Primer.html)  So the idea I have for
> Arabeyes is to create an RDF vocabulary for describing the Arabic
> capabilities of software.  Given a piece of software like a text editor,
> one needs to know basic things like which charsets it supports, does it
> support arabic shaping, etc., but one would also like to know which
> platforms it works on, whether it supports local date/time formats,
> sorting/searching, etc.  Also whether the GUI is fully R-to-L and in
> Arabic, if help files are translated, etc. etc.
>
> What got me thinking about this is that last winter I spent a lot of
> time researching diff programs and xml editors trying to find good
> Arabic support.  So I ended up with a checklist of products and
> capabilities.  I didn't know it at the time but RDF is perfectly suited
> for that kind of metadata.
>
> For Arabeyes, development of an "Arabic-Capabilities" RDF vocabulary
> could potentially make it much easier to find and evaluate
> Arabic-enabled free/open software.  If it were successful (easy to use
> and understand, I guess), then software developers could start including
> such info with each release.
>
> Naturally I don't have much time at the moment but I thought I'd throw
> out the idea and see if anybody else likes it.
>
> Whaddya think?
>
> -gregg
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