poll: legacy contributions

[Ulf Wiger (AL/EAB)]

I thought I'd clean up my list of contributions.

If any of you are actively using some of the stuff below, 
please let me know (publicly or privately doesn't matter to me.)

I will try to summarize my own feelings/plans about each contrib
below. If you would like me to change my priorities, please send
me a mail.

To summarize, I'm most interested in user feedback re.
'rdbms', 'builder', 'ccviewer'; I'd like to scrap 'bucket_grid'
and 'gridfile'; and am curious as to whether anyone is using the
rest and/or has comments on them.


User contribs at erlang.org:
----------------------------
bucket_grid-1.0 (http://www.erlang.org/contrib/bucket_grid-1.0.tgz)
   - Not finished, scalability problems. Should be rethought or 
     scrapped. I'm thinking of scrapping it.

ccviewer-1.1 (http://www.erlang.org/contrib/ccviewer-1.1.tgz)
   - Has been developed further and is in use at Ericsson.
     I plan to do lots more on this one when time allows.

dispatcher-1.0 (http://www.erlang.org/contrib/dispatcher-1.0.tgz)
   - Has been replaced by mdisp-1.0 (see below)

dynarray-1.0 (http://www.erlang.org/contrib/dynarray-1.0.tgz)
   - No plans to develop further, but no known problems either.
     I'm not aware of a faster way to manage large arrays in Erlang.

filesystem-1.0 (http://www.erlang.org/contrib/filesystem-1.0.tgz)
   - This type of functionality should be in OTP. I will check to
     see whether I have newer versions lying around, but am in no
     great hurry to do so.

fuz-1.0 (http://www.erlang.org/contrib/fuz-1.0.tgz)
   - Don't think anyone uses this one. I'd wondered if the improved
     support for floats shouldn't be used, but why bother?

gridfile-1.0 (http://www.erlang.org/contrib/gridfile-1.0.tgz)
   - Same problems as with bucket_grid; same conclusion.

lines-1.1 (http://www.erlang.org/contrib/lines-1.1.tgz)
   - Obsoleted by the 'lines' version at Jungerl.

locker-1.1 (http://www.erlang.org/contrib/locker-1.1.tgz)
   - Works OK as far as I know. I started working on a version that
     supports lock hierarchies and "name registration", but the work
     stalled due to lack of time.

mdisp-1.0 (http://www.erlang.org/contrib/mdisp-1.0.tgz)
   - Stable and bug-free afaik. (:

rdbms-1.3 (http://www.erlang.org/contrib/rdbms-1.3.tgz)
   - Obsoleted by the Jungerl version.

view_backup-1.0 (http://www.erlang.org/contrib/view_backup-1.0.tgz)
   - Don't know if it works with newer versions of Mnesia - assume
     it does. No plans to develop further; no known problems.

xmerl-0.17 (http://www.erlang.org/contrib/xmerl-0.17.tgz)
   - I'm not that involved in the development of xmerl anymore.



Jungerl components:
-------------------
- 'builder' (tool to simplify creation of app files & boot scripts)
    I like this one, and would like to develop it further, but 
    will await some user demands. Documentation needs to be greatly
    improved.

- 'gen_leader' (behaviour for fault-tolerant servers)
    Another favourite. Thomas Arts found a bug in the leader election,
    but I think he's on to a solution. No firm plans to-date.

- 'lines' (dynamic array of lines - works for other datatypes as well.)
    I know of one user: Joe. I'm not aware of any problems, and have 
    no plans to develop it further.

- 'plain_fsm' (a 'behaviour' for writing upgradeable 'classic' FSMs)
    Fairly recent invention. I have not thought of anything new to add
    (except perhaps more documentation.)

- 'proc_reg' (process registration facility, where any term can be used)
    Recent invention. Is anyone using it? Needs documentation.

- 'rdbms' (relational database functionality on top of mnesia)
    Not 100% standards-compliant on referential integrity. There are 
    some things that could be done to improve 'rdbms' - foldl & foldr
    have been suggested; improved support for fragmented tables should
    be added; ... I'd need to hear more from users.

Regards,
Ulf W