[LWN Logo]

Date: Sun, 30 May 1999 23:52:00 -0400
To: htdig@htdig.org
From: Geoff Hutchison <ghutchis@wso.williams.edu>
Subject: State of the Project

Hi,

For those of you who remember, back on January 1, I sent out a message
about what I hoped we'd see for ht://Dig this year. It's not yet June 1,
but we're essentially half-way through and I wanted to give a "quick"
summary of where we've been and where I hope will go in the next six months.

* htdig-3.1.2: This is the latest stable version of 3.1.2. AFAIK, it's
completely Y2K compliant, but then as I mention in the FAQ, the GPL, our
license doesn't give a warranty either. It's also nice and stable and will
probably be the current release for a while, so we obviously suggest
upgrading if you haven't already.

* Mailing lists: We moved our mailing lists to the new htdig.org server. We
had some difficulty with the list software, but everything seems relatively
happy now. Are there any you think we should add? Any complaints?

* Website/Logo Contest: The logo contest is officially over and the
developers will vote shortly. We'll then begin redesigning the website.
Feedback is welcome if there are elements of the website and/or
documentation that need work. I feel like there are many requests for
information in the documentation. Does this mean it's hard to find what
you're looking for?

* Contributions: The new contributed work section is really doing well. I
hope people are finding it useful, but we've had several new submissions
and it seems to be getting plenty of hits. Of course we could use more
contributions for graphics, templates and guides. Someone mentioned a
"ht://Dig for Dummies" introduction. It's been a long time, so I don't
remember what's difficult and what's not. Anyone willing to take a stab?

* Development: I outlined development progress more in a long-winded e-mail
to the htdig3-dev list. To sum up, the 3.2. release is progressing, if
slowly. On the plus side, everything we'd like to do seems to have a rough
outline for implementation.

* Conference: Response to the conference seems good. For those who haven't
seen the announcement, there will be a conference on ht://Dig, considering
development, use and applications. For more info, see
http://dev.htdig.org/conference.html

And, of course, suggestions and feedback are welcome. Remember, the point
of free software is that the user community helps to improve the project.
That goes beyond just coding too! Nothing is ever perfect, so let's keep
improving!

-Geoff Hutchison
Williams Students Online
http://wso.williams.edu/