KOSH [Kommunity Orientated Software Hardware] Weekly Summary Week Commencing: 6th February 1999 Number: 007 Mailing List: kosh-general In the mailing list this week, the following items were discussed. Please do not email the scribe regarding any of these topics, it is not his job to answer these questions, but merely to report the topics of conversation. If you have any queries about this summary, please email ben@kosh.net, stating the Summary Number, and Mailing List Name, and he will try to answer your queries. a) Subject: Versioning Summary of Debate: The author's name could be added to source code, with potentially lots of authors marked against source code for an application/blueprint. b) Subject: HAVi Summary of debate: Could KOSH incorporate the concept of HAVi - Home Audio Video interoperability, a new plug and play standard for electronic appliances? The NG Amiga is going to use this. The standard allows many ways to communicate with and control many appliances, which is something that we have talked about in KOSH before. c) Subject: Wizards of OS Summary of debate: http://www.heise.de/tp/english/inhalt/konf/3332/1.html is a site about a conference called "Wizards of OS", dealing with the historic development of OSs d) Subject: Book list Summary of debate: John Chandler has produced a preliminary list of books to be built on. (Scribe's note: not repeated here as the email concerned was 11k in size, and I'm trying to keep these summaries small. See email: Book List (draft), by John Chandler , dated: 8th Feb) e) Subject: Task migration (continued) Summary of debate: Peripheral sharing could be built into KOSH to allow any machine on a KOSH-network to easily access any facilities on any of the other machines. f) Subject: Installation and application types Summary of debate: The system could keep a central database of exactly what applications are installed where. If someone is viewing a picture it should go to a viewer. If it is being edited it should go to a Paint program. The same is true of text that has been created: HTML to either an editor or a browser as desired. As a result perhaps a "finished" tag should be included in the information of a file so that it goes to the correct application. However a 'finished' flag may not be the answer as projects are rarely "finished" and often need further editing. Perhaps left-click on a file to view it as though it were finished and right-click to edit it. It was then pointed out that clicking is only one example of control over files as any control medium could be used (touchscreen, voice, on-button mouse +shift, etc). How about the Windows registry approach if better implemented? The registry would have to be dynamic, intelligent and transparent. Two older documents which are relevant are: http://www.crusaders.no/members/donv/icoa/install-process.html http://www.crusaders.no/Amiga/installer/ If a newly installed package requires a more up to date resource then that should be located and handled by KOSH automatically - if this option is allowed by the user. Maybe every application could register all the data formats it can handle and therefore if you access a file you could be presented with a choice of what to load it into. g) Subject: Revenue from merchandising Summary of debate: It was suggested that games for KOSH could be sold cheaply and the majority of revenue made from merchandising around the game. h) Subject: Portfolio files Summary of debate: A 'portfolio file' would be an attributes 'chunk' inside a package container object. A central registry would then hold all references to applications. Therefore when a package is moved elsewhere then the package manager is automatically notified of changes. This information could then be used to keep a track of what is where. i) Subject: KOSHan Web Sites Summary of debate: A list of links from the KOSH url to KOSHan people's web sites could be added. j) Subject: ISO 9000 Summary of debate: Suggested that KOSH (presumably KOSHinc?) could get ISO9000 certification for quality management standards if we follow the guidelines for such assessment. But the future of ISO9000/9002 may be in doubt, and there may not be a clear advantage for being so certified. k) Subject: Accessible programming Summary of debate: If we made sure that KOSH came with a built-in not-too-complex programming language that people could just dive into and learn to code with ease (such as BBC Basic on the 8-bits). This could lead to a resurgence in the number of "bedroom programmers" that once were commonplace and graced the world with their existence. l) Subject: QNX literature Summary of debate: Literature on QNX systems can be found at: http://www.qnx.com/literature/index.html m) Subject: Macmillan Computer Publishing updated URL Summary of debate: The new URL for the above is http://www.pbs.mcp.com n) Subject: Asian character sets Summary of debate: G'o'tz Ohnesorge