[analog-help] The next 'best' analyzer...?

[Per Jessen]

Aengus wrote:

>> (personally I also think the config syntax and semantics could do
>> with an "upgrade").
> 
> There are a couple of syntactic quirks that, with hindsight, might be
> usefully reworked, but I'm not sure that the benefits of making
> "FILEINCLUDE robots" work the same way as "FILEINCLUDE pages" is
> enough to provide the momentum for a fork.

I think the entire runtime config is quirky to say the least.  Certainly
when compared to the tools we otherwise work with - apache, mysql,
syslog-ng, logrotate, rsync etc.  Just fixing a couple of minor
oddities isn't really worth looking at, I agree. 

>> A fork is not necessary, but as Stephen never did invite other
>> maintainers/developers, it seems to be only way forward.
> 
> I don't think Stephen was exactly beating down requests to join the
> development team! 

He wasn't inviting any either.  An obvious first step would have been to
use the sourceforge project that was set up, but I don't think he ever
did.  (apart from the front page). 

> The very structure of Analog makes helper apps a good
> method to add functionality, without modifying Analog.

It's a slightly different discussion, but sometimes it's nicer to have
just one tool instead five or six that you need to cobble together with
a bit of scripting etc. 

> This was Stephens response to why he didn't release an "official"
> patch to include Vista:
> http://lists.meer.net/pipermail/analog-help/2006-November/020028.html

Perfectly reasonable, but had he for instance already had others on the
project to help support some of these platforms, it would have been
much easier to do a new release. 

> I certainly have no objection to a fork - I doubt that Stephen has.
> I'm just not sure that there's sufficient demand for a fork to
> maintain the necessary momentum.

I don't think Stephen has any issue with a fork either, I'm just
surprised it hasn't happened yet.  Maybe a fork will become more
attractive in an other couple of user-mods and a bit of sticky tape
here and some chewing gum there :-)


/Per Jessen, Zürich