Re: GitHub repositories proposal

I respectfully disagree with this proposal based on the assumptions that
James has made. While I agree that there may be a need for separate Github
repos (and therefore separate issue trackers), I do not agree with how he
has selected which projects should have Github repos.

Presently, the CG has three Github repos:
- SMuFL: https://github.com/w3c/smufl
- MusicXML: https://github.com/w3c/musicxml
- MNX: https://github.com/w3c/mnx

MusicXML remains part of the CG's agenda at least until 3.1 is finalized
(and perhaps beyond until MNX is ready for an initial release, but that's
not my decision). The "disagreement as to whether MusicXML can really be
finalized" is just simply discussion about the state of MusicXML 3.1. From
my point of view, there is no disagreement, only discussion to ensure that
MusicXML 3.1 is released when it is ready. I personally don't see any
blocking issues for MusicXML 3.1, but others may, and it won't be released
until there is a group consensus.

Regarding separate Github repos for MNX, CWMNX, and GMNX, I think that we
might eventually need separate repos for CWMNX and GMNX, but I think it
would lead to too much fragmentation if done now. I personally want to see
MNX released, and I believe that in order to do that, the CG as a whole
needs to focus and dedicate resources towards that goal. Having so many
areas of discussion dilutes that focus, and makes achieving that goal
harder and requires more time.

My recommendation is to keep all of the MNX variants together until there
is enough traction to create a separate repo for each. It's relatively easy
to move from one repo to multiple, but it's always more difficult to manage
multiple repos. We already have three, and I personally don't yet see the
value of expanding this to five. Having five repos would make it more
difficult for members to know where to file issues, and would be more
difficult for our chair to manage.

As far as your issue "that relates to GMNX (synchronization with audio
files) without having to think about whether that issue also relates to
CWMNX", I believe this issue relates to both CWMNX and GMNX, so it should
continue to be an MNX issue.

On Fri, Sep 1, 2017 at 4:00 AM, James Ingram <j.ingram@netcologne.de> wrote:

> Hi all,
>
> This CG now has three (maybe four) completely independent topics on the
> agenda: MNX, CWMNX, GMNX and (to judge by the present MusicXML thread)
> maybe MusicXML as well. There seems to be some disagreement as to whether
> MusicXML can really be finalized.
>
> These three (or four) topics each have their own use-cases. None of them
> depends, for their successful development, on the successful development of
> any of the others.
>
> So I'd like to propose that each of them be given its own repository on
> GitHub. I think that would lead to less confusing, more concentrated
> discussions and better documentation of the issues. It would be quite easy
> to create cross-repository issue links, should that ever be necessary.
>
> For example, I'd like to discuss an issue that relates to GMNX
> (synchronization with audio files) without having to think about whether
> that issue also relates to CWMNX. If it does relate to CWMNX, then someone
> should also raise it in the CWMNX repository. The discussions in the
> different repositories would have little to do with each other, and be very
> different in each case.
>
> If the chair doesn't want to create extra repositories, maybe you could
> say how I should proceed. As far as I know, I'm currently only supposed to
> contribute to mnx#25 ("GMNX should embed elements in an SVG file"), and
> that issue is already overloaded with sub-issues.
>
> all the best,
> James
>
> p.s. I have two other responses to the Charter Vote Comments, but they can
> wait.
> j
>
>