Re: [Freeciv-Dev] split?

[David Pfitzner <dwp@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Daniel Sjolie wrote:

> >  If the clients split nothing much will be
> > lost, or will it?

Currently the two clients share some code, and alot of 
structure, so it is relatively easy to port changes between
the two.  If they diverge more, it will be harder to keep
them in sync and to port improvements from one to the other.

> But with the added client AI and servants features on the client side
> one client might lag behind the other...

Right.  Thats not necessarily all that bad, but a consideration.

> I'm not sure how to do this but consider this:
> It would be nice to have a development client that does not have to care
> about all that stuff, the 'real' client could then take what it can from
> this one... We should keep in mind to keep the non-GUI client compatible
> enough so that the 'real' client could use new features from this one
> with a 'lighter' GUI but it shouldn't be a must...

I don't really see this working, since once the two become 
significantly different it would be too much trouble to merge 
major features from one to the other.  You would either end up 
with two separate clients, or one would stagnate and die off. 

> Really:
> What I want to do is to write a new client using the freeciv server...
> We would take as much code as possible from the present client and we
> would take some effort to make it possible to use the new code in the
> old client but this would in many ways be a new project...

Go ahead!  No-one complained when people started a client using Java,
which would certainly have remained a separate client.  But you may
want to keep in mind one of the effective "rules" of open source 
development: It is much easier to get people to contribute if you 
have a working "base".  (Eg Mozilla; perhaps this was a problem
with the Java client?)  Which means _someone_ has to put in enough
work at the start to make the project viable.

> That is - the new client would not really aim at being the standard
> client... Not really... A standard but not the...

If it becomes good enough, it may become the new "standard" client.
Fine by me.

Regards,
-- David