[svlug] Where and how to post contributed software

[Shlomi Fish]

On Sat, Sep 13, 2008 at 10:50 PM,  <norm at dad.org> wrote:
> I'm a retired mathematician and hacker. In order to repay the open source
> community and to keep me happy and productive I'm writing software which I want
> to post somewhere as free, open source. So far, I have:
>
>     Race. A mathematical game, that simulates an auto race. I originally
>     designed it fir children but adults seem to like it too. Will work wherever
>     Java is installed
>
>     lnudup. It links all the files in a directory hierarchy, having the same
>     content. Has options to specify hard or soft links, only link files with
>     same name, etc. Will work under Linux, Mac and with recompilation (of the
>     small portion written in C++), other Unixes. Requires Java.
>
>     ss. Like ps, but with finer grained control over what processes are
>     included and selection of output fields. Will work only under Linux.
>     Requires Java.
>
>     real. Resolves symbolic links. A wrapper for glibc's realpath. (This is an
>     extremely complex programs :-) Its source, excluding #includes and blank
>     lines is 33 lines long.) Will work under Linux, and with recompilation any
>     POSIX system. Does not require Java.
>
>     emit. Makes the kernel pretend that its arguments separated by spaces,
>     are typed on another terminal. A wrapper for ioctl(fd,TIOCSTI,x)).
>     For use in scripts.
>
> I don't know where I should post these, or what hoops I will need to jump
> through to post them. I would appreciate advice.
>

I'll split the question into two: 1) hosting the downloads and 2)
publicising the software.

1. Hosting the downloads:
------------------------------

For hosting the downloads, you can either use a software hub like
http://sourceforge.net/ , http://www.berlios.de/ ,
http://savannah.gnu.org/ , http://code.google.com/hosting/ [1] - more
at:

* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Free_software_hosting_facilities

* http://www.google.com/Top/Computers/Open_Source/Project_Hosting/?il=1

{{{
[1] - a word of warning - one fact that I dislike about Google code is
that it does not provide dumps of the subversion repositories used for
the projects. Until they do, I cannot consider hosting my projects
there.
}}}}

Using such services won't cost you money, and will also provide other
services like bug trackers, version control repositories, etc.

The other alternative is to host the downloads (at the very least) on
your own web-site. I'm personally still using the services of software
hubs (especially BerliOS) for most software that I release, and I'm OK
with it.

2. Publicising the Software:
--------------------------------

To publicise the software, you should use your own hub's news wire
(assuming you have one, as well as:

* http://freshmeat.net/

* http://directory.fsf.org/

If your project gains enough momentum, you should consider setting up
a newsletter, a web-feed and possibly also a mailing list for it.

3. Further reading:
-----------------------------

For further reading see:

* http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/ (Highly recommended)

* http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Software-Release-Practice-HOWTO/index.html

* http://producingoss.com/ (haven't read it yet)

* http://www.shlomifish.org/philosophy/computers/high-quality-software/rev2/
(my own article).

Regards,

-- Shlomi Fish

>    Norman Shapiro
>    798 Barron Avenue
>    Palo Alto CA 94306-3109
>    (650) 565-8215
>    norm at dad.org
>
>
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------------------------------------------
Shlomi Fish http://www.shlomifish.org/

Electrical Engineering studies. In the Technion. Been there. Done
that. Forgot a lot. Remember too much.