[pypy-svn] r3573 - in pypy/trunk/doc/funding: . oldstuff
pedronis at codespeak.net
pedronis at codespeak.net
Wed Mar 31 21:51:55 CEST 2004
Author: pedronis
Date: Wed Mar 31 21:51:54 2004
New Revision: 3573
Added:
pypy/trunk/doc/funding/oldstuff/B2.0.0_new_relevance.asc
- copied unchanged from r3572, pypy/trunk/doc/funding/B2.0.0_new_relevance.asc
pypy/trunk/doc/funding/oldstuff/alastair_abstract.asc
- copied unchanged from r3572, pypy/trunk/doc/funding/alastair_abstract.asc
pypy/trunk/doc/funding/oldstuff/b2.asc
- copied unchanged from r3572, pypy/trunk/doc/funding/b2.asc
pypy/trunk/doc/funding/oldstuff/old_abstract.asc
- copied unchanged from r3572, pypy/trunk/doc/funding/old_abstract.asc
Removed:
pypy/trunk/doc/funding/B2.0.0_new_relevance.asc
pypy/trunk/doc/funding/alastair_abstract.asc
pypy/trunk/doc/funding/b2.asc
pypy/trunk/doc/funding/old_abstract.asc
Log:
moved some old texts to oldstuff.
Deleted: /pypy/trunk/doc/funding/B2.0.0_new_relevance.asc
==============================================================================
--- /pypy/trunk/doc/funding/B2.0.0_new_relevance.asc Wed Mar 31 21:51:54 2004
+++ (empty file)
@@ -1,210 +0,0 @@
-FIXME_LAURA: proof-read this, insert new direction SWOT job
-:DELETE:BEGIN
-FIXME_LAURA: proof-read this
-
-Relevance to the Objectives of the IST Priority
---------------------------------------------------
-
-The PyPy project will build a flexible, modular, context-aware
-implementation of the Open Source programming language Python. In
-doing so it will take advantage of the known European strengths in
-formal methods and languages outlined in the June 2002 report: 'IST
-Advisory Group Software Technologies, Embedded Systems and Distributed
-Systems: A European strategy towards an Ambient Intelligent
-Environment'. It will go beyond the state of the Art in computer
-languages, and produce a runtime system which is much better suited
-for the development and deployment of networked, embedded, and mobile
-devices than any existing language available today. In doing so
-it will adhere to the syntax of the popular programming language, thus
-requiring no re-training for the tens of thousands of European Python
-programmers. To improve an existing programming language with the
-explicit goals of making it more suitable for European industry can
-only have a positive effect on European competitiveness.
-
-Because PyPy will be released as Open Source, it will contribute
-towards the goals of openness and trust. Python is the most
-widely used European-designed computer language. Its development
-started in 1990, at CWI, Centrum voor Wiskunde en Informatica, the
-National Research Institute for Mathematics and Computer Science in
-the Netherlands, it will strenghten our leadership in the area of
-innovative language design, and increase world-wide awareness of this
-fact.
-
-Thus PyPy is position to be at the heart of the knowledge economy and
-provide a viable alternative to American closed source language
-monopolies, while increasing innovation and competitiveness in
-European businesses and industry and to contributing to the greater
-well-being of all European citizens.
-
-
-
-:DELETE:END
-
-Relevance to the Objectives of the IST Priority
---------------------------------------------------
-
-The IST thematic priority will contribute directly to realising
-European policies for the knowledge society as agreed at the Lisbon
-Council of 2000, the Stockholm Council of 2001, the Seville Council of
-2002, and as reflected in the e-Europe Action Plan.
-
- The main targets of IST in FP6 are
-
- - solving 'trust and confidence' problems so as to improve
- dependability of technologies, infrastructures and applications.
-
-PyPy can contribute to this goal because it is an Open Source
-language. Open Source programs are more widely trusted than
-proprietary alternatives because they are transparent. Any person
-having any doubts or questions about the technology can simply read
-the code and find out what it does, unlike with a closed-source
-language where one can only hope it does what you want. Moreover,
-Python is an extremely readable language. Readability was one of its
-design goals. This makes maintaining Python programs substatially
-easier than similar program in less readable languages. It is the
-maintainability of computer programs which most directly effects their
-actual and perceived reliability.
-
-Moreover, there is a significant risk in relying on proprietary
-closed source programs. Should one have any problem with the program,
-you are completely dependent upon the programs manufacturer to fix
-it. But the manufacturer will only fix it if it is in his commercial
-interest to do so. The authors of this proposal who live in Sweden
-are extremely tired of using software which believes that one can
-live without the last three letters of the Swedish alphabet :XXX.
-When the source is freely available, then should the manufacturer
-not believe your problems to be worth his while, you can always
-change things yourself, or hire somebody else to do so. Thus rather
-than 'trusting the manufacturer because you have no choice' you
-can 'trust yourself to always be able to fix it should it go wrong'.
-This second form of trust is far more durable and useful.
-
- - strengthening social cohesion by providing efficient,
- intelligent and easy to use systems.
-
-Social cohesion is strengthened when technological advances are no
-longer the exclusive domain of a technological elite, but readily
-accessible by all members of society. The best way to achieve such a
-goal is to have the participation of all members of society in the
-design and implementation of new technological advances. They will
-prevent our future devices from arriving with user interfaces that
-present a 'nerds only' barrier. In the field of software, this means
-more than simply providing programs which are easy to use -- it
-also means providing languages which are easier for non-programmers
-to learn.
-
-Python's development started in 1990, at Centrum voor Wiskunde en
-Informatica (CWI), the National Research Institute for Mathematics and
-Computer Science in the Netherlands. It built on the lessons learned
-in designing ABC. Both of these languages are explicitly designed to
-be easier for non-programmers and non-technical people to learn. Python
-has been extremely successful in such goals, see XXX CP4E, especially
-among women. Python is widely used as a first programming language.
-We will explore this further in section 7, but for here suffice it
-to say that Python meets such goals as much as is possible for a
-computer language.
-
-Again, the simple benefit of being able to type your name correctly,
-when it contains letters outside of the English 26, provides a sense
-of belonging -- or perhaps it is only that when you cannot type your
-name you feel excluded, unappreciated, or unwanted.
-
- - enabling sustainable growth and improving competitiveness both of
- large and small businesses as well as the efficiency and transparency
- of governments.
-
-Governments have been embracing Open Source in recent times in a big
-way. To the extent that they will demand programs developed in an
-Open Source Language, for reasons of transparency, reliability, and
-national security they will benefit from the existence of PyPy as an
-Open Source language choice.
-
-Moreover, the PyPy Consortium includes the Python Business Forum, an
-international trade association of SMEs who develop using the Python
-programming language. Since SMEs are the main engines for innovation,
-growth, and competitiveness in the IT sector, by supporting these
-SMEs, and improving the language they use to develop one can directly
-have a positive effect on competitiveness. Moreover, syngeries can be
-developed between the SMEs and academia, and SME and large industrial
-players. Disseminating knowledge to these SMEs is a primary goal of
-this proposal, and a major focus of our efforts. They are poised to
-fully exploit the new language implementation because they will be
-among its developers, and beneficiaries of a focussed effort in
-knowledge dissemination.
-
-Thirdly, a Consortium member in this proposal is the Swedish SME AB
-Strakt, whose new product, *CAPS Upphandling*, is a full-featured,
-transparent, government procurement system promoting the efficiency of
-government throughout the tender process. AB Strakt is interested in
-PyPy in large part because it will improve its commercial offering.
-The governments and large businesses which are its primary market will
-thus benefit indirectly from an improved Python.
-
- - harnessing the computing and knowledge management resources
- across Europe and bringing them to the desktop of any
- researcher, engineer or other end user.
-
-Open source standards increase interoperability, which make such
-resources easier to share. FIXME_ALASTAIR Now talk about Semantic Web
-
-Again, quoting from the IST workprogramme, this requires progress in
-three main technology building blocks:
-
-ena - pushing the limits of miniaturisation and minimising the costs
- and power consumption of microelectronic components and
- micro-systems.
-
-Smaller systems need software developed in languages that have a
-small footprint. PyPy will be there.
-
- - developing mobile, wireless, optical and broadband communication
- infrastructures as well as software and computing technologies
- that are reliable, pervasive, interoperable and can be adapted
- to accommodate new applications and services. Europe's strengths
- both in communication technologies and in embedded software and
- systems provide a clear opportunity to lead and contribute to
- the development of the next generation of products and
- services. The development of open standards and open source
- software will be encouraged when appropriate to ensure
- interoperability of solutions and to further innovation.
-
-This is PyPy in a nutshell. An Open Source language that is explicitly
-designed for the next generation of products and services. FIXME_SAMUELE
-quote from the work package???
-
-- Developing user friendly interfaces which are intuitive, can
- interpret all our senses such as speech, vision and touch and
- that understand our gestures and various languages. This should
- be coupled with more powerful and flexible knowledge
- technologies that are semantic-based and context-aware. They
- should prepare for the next generation Web and make access to,
- and creation of digital content more effective and more
- creative.
-
-FIXME_ALASTAIR SEmantic web,
-FIXME_NICO Narval? where does constraint programming go?
-
-Links and Complimentary with Other Programmes
-+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
-FIXME_ARMIN FIXME_NICO FIXME_ALASTAIR FIXME_BEA
-Talk about your projects.
-
-Contribution to Community Social Objectives
-+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
-
-FIXME_LAURA ask Michel
-
-Contributiuon to EC Policies
-++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
-
-There will be transfer of knowledge from research to industry through
-the participation of software developing SMEs. Thus the SMEs in the
-project will benefit from the cutting-edge, high level research results.
-Since the SMEs are in a hurry to commercialise products which use this
-research, the academics will see that their research is not wasted --
-locked into tiny languages which have little effect outside of the
-academic community. A specialising Just in Time Compiler for Python,
-designed for the use of networked and embedded systems will have
-immediate effect in reinforcing European dominance in this demanding
-competitive field, and thus contribute to the employment of people
-in desirable jobs in a rapidly growing field.
Deleted: /pypy/trunk/doc/funding/alastair_abstract.asc
==============================================================================
--- /pypy/trunk/doc/funding/alastair_abstract.asc Wed Mar 31 21:51:54 2004
+++ (empty file)
@@ -1,42 +0,0 @@
- Main goals
-
- The main goal is to use innovative implementation techniques and
- innovative development techniques to produce a better version of the
- popular programming language Python. The new Python will maintain the
- semantics of the current implementation but will have the following
- benefits: it will be more easily customised and extended, it will be
- more portable, it is expected to be more efficient, and it will cover
- more programming paradigms in a way that respects the simplicity of the
- underlying language. In addition, the project will document and refine
- the existing open source development model in the Python
- community. Although targetted principally at Python, most of the
- techniques will also be applicable to other high level languages.
-
- The approach
-
- The project will achieve its goals principally by building on the
- strengths of the current open source developer community. In
- particular, it will potentiate existing volunteer initiatives that are
- working on novel implementation techniques, working within the current
- informal framework of design consultation, open source code
- repositories and periodic coding workshops. The project will connect
- this developer community with relevant experts in academia. It will
- also make use of the existing non-profit organisation of Python firms
- to bind end users into the design and trialling of the extended Python
- implementation. Technically, the project will refine and implement an
- innovative approach to language implementation, based on object spaces,
- that allows implementation techniques to be integrated in a modular
- way.
-
- Concrete results
-
- Much anecdotal, and some empirical, evidence suggests that Python is
- one of the easiest programming languages to learn and is one of the
- languages in which one can code up a given algorithm the fastest. For
- these reasons, it is particularly popular among those people whose main
- competence lies beyond computer science and for whom programming is a
- secondary activity, that is to say most of the people on the
- planet. The goal of this project is to enable even more people to
- program in Python and ensure that more people will never need to learn
- any other language than Python. They will, instead, be able to
- concentrate on getting their job done.
Deleted: /pypy/trunk/doc/funding/b2.asc
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--- /pypy/trunk/doc/funding/b2.asc Wed Mar 31 21:51:54 2004
+++ (empty file)
@@ -1,192 +0,0 @@
-First look at the SWOT table from 'IST Advisory Group: Software technologies,
-embedded systems and distributed systems: A European strategy towards an
-Ambient Intelligent environment'
-
-
-This table describes the situation nicely. However, it falls short of
-having a strategy for addressing the problem presented. We have one.
-
-Our intent is to use the strength in the Open Source Software development
-community (7) and some strong SMEs (8) to combat the Threat of US players
-dominating in development platforms(1). In doing so our principal goal
-will be to overcome Weakness (1) -- Inadequate Structure and Weak Culture
-for transferring and exploiting university research results, fragmentation
-of academic efforts. That's the weakness we are most familiar with, and
-the one we believe we know how to fix.
-
-To put it another way, 'Why is that so much of our research effort
-comes to nothing? Why do the Americans, and not us, take our research
-to market? What exactly is it that goes wrong somewhere between making the
-prototype and making the successful company?'
-
-The answer, we believe, is an inadequate understanding of what it takes
-to become successful. In Europe there is a crucial blindness as to
-what it takes to be successful in the marketplace. Technological
-superiority we have oodles of. It's in the marketplace where we fail.
-And this is in large part because people in Europe still believe that
-good technology sells itself. This is almost never the case.
-
-The Americans know that. This is their big secret. And nobody knows this
-better than the Open Source movement. We routinely create programs that
-are much better than those that are commercially available. And then
-what? Nothing, mostly. This problem in European competitiveness is
-our problem as well.
-
-Over time we have learned, the hard way, that being technologically
-excellent is the easy part of the job. Getting to market is the hard
-part of the job. We believe tthat the European Commission understands
-this problem very well. We do not, however, believe that the EC knows
-how to solve it. Searching over proposals, we found very few Open
-Source ones. This is unsurprising. Perhaps without intending it,
-the EC has made participation by Open Source companies more difficult
-that it needs to.
-
-From our outsider's perspective, we see that the EC thinks that it should
-plough money into some hopeful line of research, and group some large
-industries with some academics, in the hope that the large industries
-will use the research in some of their current projects. There is
-some sincere effort to get SMEs involved, but almost exclusively as
-consumers of research. Small manufacturers, in particular, seem to
-be the 'ideal SME' that the EC envisioned when crafting its plan.
-
-We would like the opportunity to show you an alternative way to attack
-the problem, one that comes from the Open Source and Agile Programming
-world.
-
-First of all, you must start with some SME entrepreneurs and some
-professional educators or communicators. They are essential to your
-eventual success, and they need to be on board even before you begin
-your first technical expedition. This is because the first thing to
-do is to start with a marketing/educating effort. You need to do this
-in order to attract the best people to your project. This is a common
-problem in the Open Source world. Some businesses have embraced
-Open Source, primarily out of greed. They hope to have other people
-develop their software, for free, thus saving them the cost of hiring
-developers. They 'hang up a shingle' -- in other words make a
-web page, and make a few announcements, and then sit back astonished
-when nobody comes. In the Open Source world, it is not the case that
-'if you build it, they will come'. There are companies who do
-succeed at this.
-
-The PyPy development team did things differently. We first decided to
-make a prototype. This has taken us most of the year 2003, because we
-have only been able to do this on our vacations -- about 5 weeks
-total. We did this for 2 reasons. The first is that we were quite
-aware that we were going to ask you for money to enable us to work
-full time creating something useful that had never been done before.
-It would be embarassing and shameful to then fail, because we asked to
-do something that could not be done. A prototype would allow us to
-test our novel concept of Object Spaces. If they did not work, then
-our whole idea was unsound.
-
-Moreover, this would give us the time to greatly publicise our project,
-and attract the best people to it. We happen to be some of the biggest
-fish in the Python-World Pond, but we made sure that we invited others,
-including Guido van Rossum, the biggest fish of all to our development
-Sprints. We worked on our process ensuring that we could work together,
-and that no unexpected personality clashes or conflicts would derail
-the project. We went to conference, after conference, after conference
-and gave papers and informal talks about what we intended to do. We
-made our own website, set up some mailing lists, and discussed things
-not only there, but in the 'python in education' mailing list, the
-'marketing python' (this one is about increasing the market share of
-Python) mailing list, in the Python developer's list, and in the
-newsgroup comp.lang.python. We hung out on our own internet relay
-chat line on irc.freenode.net and answered questions of whoever
-dropped by. We held open Sprints, and let anybody who was interested
-participate.
-
-We made an enormous splash. We are now an extremely high profile
-open source project. We are being watched. If we fail, we will do
-it quite publically.
-
-Why, you might ask, would we go to all that trouble? Because, unlike
-some projects you know, where 'getting the EU funding' is all that
-really matters, and what you do to get it, is secondary -- we find the
-EU funding only a means to our goal. This is because our goal is
-multi-facetted.
-
-First of all there is the straight-forward technical goal. We want to
-make an extremely novel specialising compiler for the Python programming
-language. This goal is technically quite formidable, and requires
-sophisticated expertise.
-
-Second of all, those of us who write software using Python hope that
-our software will itself be improved. This is a commercial interest
-for the PBF, a large stakeholder.
-
-Third of all, there is the marketing goal. We want to make Python
-the most used language on the planet. And that is a much harder goal.
-We had to successfully attract the best people to the project, without
-causing a crisis that would 'fork the project' -- producing 2 hostile
-camps who each point at each other saying 'Mine's the real Python'.
-When we are done making PyPy we want to immediately capture the
-existing user baser of 175,000. <-- should we make an appendix of how
-we calculate that? And then we want to go after those Visual Basic,
-Java, and C++ programmers out there. Python is currently ranked only
-the sixth most popular language on the planet. We would like to become
-number one.
-
-And fourth of all, we want to be the reference project for future
-collaboration between the Open Source and the Agile programming
-communities, and the EU. We think that both groups need each other.
-The EU, in its statement clearly recognises the fact. But it seems,
-to us, unsure how to do this. And there are significant risks which
-the EU seems to want to take with one hand, while want to prevent
-with its other.
-
-For instance, it is not enough to merely have some SMEs involved, in
-some small token way. That will only marginalise them. You will lose
-the very ones you want to attract, those with true entrepreeurial
-spirit, and keep those who are only after a safe and satisfactory life
-at the government trough. If you would like your project adequately
-disseminated, you must involve the SMEs all through the project.
-
-But this is hard to achieve. The smallest SMEs cannot afford to
-dedicate a full person to the project, and will find the paperwork
-crushing. The project cannot afford to rely on a key player who could
-be bought or go bankrupt or become too overworked to contribute at any
-moment of time. What then? There is, of course, a solution. If SMEs
-banded together, and shared resources, they could function like a
-large company. This has worked successfully for Swedish farmers, and
-we believed it could work well for software companies as well. With
-large enough numbers, you can spread the risk around. While at any
-time any PBF member could be in a state of transition, they won't all
-be, and somebody equivalent could be found to take the place of
-somebody who was temporarily unavailable.
-
-This, however, is only possible if great effort is taken at all times to
-keep the process open and transparent. There must be no secrets. You
-cannot get a replacement on a dime unless you are constantly educating
-your larger community. Otherwise, getting up to speed would take too
-long and the project would fail. Aside from the usual web pages,
-conferences, irc channels, and mailing lists, you must make targetted
-FIXME BEA what do you call them? And host open Sprints, keep your
-source open and availabel for download at all times, and use a
-process based FIXME BEA is this correct? Agile development model that
-is robust in the possibility of change.
-
-This is hard. This is very hard. It requires trust, and courage, and
-the sort of Egoless programming which is trained, not read about. It is
-what the EC has claimed it wants, but which it has not fostered.
-
-Thus, from our point of view, we see our relevance to the IST program
-as 2-fold. First of all we are going to give you the AmbiIntelligent
-FIXME_LAURA correct jargon?development platform for networked and
-mobile devices that you believe is essential to European competitivness.
-
-But what we also intend to do is to deliver a model of how you can
-actually get the Open Source community to work with you -- and, of
-course while we deliver the OS community to you, we are also going to
-deliver you to them -- we are going to take special effort to document
-and publicise _you_ to _them_. We are going to teach 'how to crack
-the system and get the EU to pay for you to develop marvels without
-demanding that you lose your soul'. Because, when it comes down to it,
-that is what the OS community wants most. A chance to make a difference,
-change the world, and make it a better place.
-
-If you accept this proposal, and our way of software development, we
-will only be the first in a long line of successful Open Source projects
-that produce the marvels you ask for. And we will stick around and
-teach anybody who comes by exactly how we did it.
-
Deleted: /pypy/trunk/doc/funding/old_abstract.asc
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--- /pypy/trunk/doc/funding/old_abstract.asc Wed Mar 31 21:51:54 2004
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@@ -1,33 +0,0 @@
-The PyPy project will build a portable, fast, flexible, context-aware
-programming platform supporting Very-High Level Languages (VHLL) to
-yield significant productivity gains in software development. PyPy's
-flexible, modular runtime system will be well-suited for networked,
-embedded, and mobile devices.
-
-VHLLs' high semantic level can help extend context-awareness, beyond
-the basics (time, location, identity), to a wider variety of context
-information and actions. However, VHLLs can often produce slow or large
-application and supporting code, hampering their use for small devices.
-We will solve this problem via the innovative concept of ObjectSpaces,
-high-level formulations of language interpreter components. Explicit,
-clear separation of parts yields modularity and flexibility.
-ObjectSpaces are themselves coded in a VHLL and can be specialised for
-execution speed, memory consumption, or other parameters.
-
-PyPy will use and target the widely-used Open Source programming
-language Python, first developed in 1990 at CWI (Centrum voor Wiskunde
-en Informatica) in the Netherlands. By producing the new reference
-version of the language, we will have a large impact on the estimated
-175,000 Python programmers worldwide. Emphasizing simplicity and
-readability, Python has wider appeal among non-programmers, and
-particularly among women, than languages perceived as needing extensive
-mathematical training and ability. An improved Python can thus help
-somewhat in promoting social cohesion and gender equality.
-
-PyPy will leverage known European strengths in formal methods and
-languages, operating by a novel Agile Software Development methodology
-for distributed development, including short, high-productivity
-meetings known as "Sprints". Systematic efforts to spread the knowledge
-produced by the project among academics, SMEs, industry, and other
-interested parties, will ensure the project's results and achievements
-are fully exploited.
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