Future Direction for PUPS and UHS

[Greg Lehey]

On Thursday,  1 June 2000 at 10:25:34 +1000, Warren Toomey wrote:
> All,
> 	A discussion has started up on the PUPS volunteers list about the
> future direction we should take in terms of the PUPS Archive.
>
> For those people new to this list, here's a bit of background. Originally
> I set up the PDP-11 UNIX Preservation Society, the mailing list and the
> Archive as that was my interest.
>
> Since then, we've attracted people with interests in other Unixes, such
> as the 4BSDs, and other hardware platforms such as the Vax, the 68k Suns
> etc.
>
> A while back, I changed the charter of the mailing list to encompass any
> Unix-related questions, epecially to those systems which are now treated
> as `ancient' by the mainstream, even if they are being maintained (e.g
> 2.11BSD and the Quasijarus project).
>
> I also tried to create an umbrella organisation, the Unix Heritage Society
> (http://minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au/TUHS/), which would allow a number of groups
> like PUPS and Quasijarus to form, and so that we could co-ordinate their
> efforts. I must admit I haven't put much effort into this idea.
>
> Now, the PUPS Archive (PUPS in name, but it contains lots more than PDP-11
> stuff) is accumulating more and more stuff. Some people want to see a
> mainly PDP-11 archive, other want to try and archive everything before it
> goes off to /dev/null.
>
> So, I want to survey the mailing list here for ideas about the charter of
> the Unix Heritage Society, and a way of setting up one or multiple archives,
> mailing lists, web pages etc. as I originally envisioned.
>
> Questions:
> 	- should we keep one archive, or have multiple archives?

I don't really think it makes any difference.  Structure one archive
well, and you can get the individual platform archives simply by going
down a directory level.  The problem is, of course, that some software
can be relevant to multiple platforms.

> 	- if one, what structure (divisions on platforms, on vendors etc.)

I'd be inclined to go for the hardware platform, but I haven't thought
it through.  Ultimately it would probably depend on the nature of the
software that came in.

> 	- if you have a keen interest in one platform/system, would you
> 	  consider becoming the leader of an interest group that could
> 	  sit under the Unix Heritage Society umbrella?

No, I don't think so.  But you might be able to twist my arm.

> 	- do you want to set up and maintain a more specific archive,
> 	  mailing list, web site, that the Unix Heritage Society could
> 	  point to?

No.

> 	- do you want this current mailing list to stay ``all-encompassing'',
> 	  or would you rather have more specific lists?

Personally I'd like it to be all-encompassing, but then, it's only a
small part of the 1000 messages I get per day, and it's easy to delete
messages I don't want to read.

> [ now stands back for the deluge! ]

That really happened, didn't it?

Greg
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