Re: Towards Solid Lite

That would be great for me. It would allow for possibility of getting some
aspect of Solid into my software dev cycle.

- James

On Sat, Oct 28, 2023, 9:35 AM Melvin Carvalho <melvincarvalho@gmail.com>
wrote:

> I was wondering if it might be an idea to have a lite version of Solid
>
> This might have several advantages
>
> 1. Currently we have a spec which has a high learning curve for
> new developers.  It is better suited to a phd student than to the grass
> roots.  A simple spec might have a positive impact on new developers and
> maintain full upgrade capability to solid 1.0, when it is ready
>
> 2. There is a large amount of bureaucracy involved with the project.  So
> much so that the new proposed chair process would hold 6 weeks of elections
> even if there was only one candidate for chair.  The large bureaucracy
> might well suit full time employees that are paid to work on solid, but
> that comes at the cost of the grass roots that work on multiple projects or
> that wish to contribute on evenings or at weekends
>
> 3. The main open source servers right now are a barrier to participation.
> They are hard to run or debug.  Some are abusive, insulting and harassing
> towards contributors in an unacceptable way, as we all saw recently.
> Others lack transparency or momentum.  A lite spec could see easier servers
> to be developed and deployed.
>
> 4. The current spec is so complex that it contains bugs in every
> implementation so that solid no longer benefits from its main value
> proposition, and that is interoperability.  It is hard to interoperate, to
> use, and to debug.  A lite spec would be much easier to have a consistent
> maintenance burden, and good user experience.
>
> 5. Solid 1.0 wont be ready until 2026 at the earliest.  That means that we
> still dont know what the final version will look like, or even if there
> will be more idea creep.  A lite spec could be used while waiting to find
> out what 1.0 or even 2.0 would look like without a long wait.
>
> 6. Now that we have a test suite, it could also be used against a lite
> spec, by taking an agreed-upon minimal subset of the tests.  Implementers
> could see they are compliant and also see what other features would be
> useful.
>
> I have considered that this would be needed for a long time.  It might be
> a good time to examine the idea as we have a WG charter and can have a
> better idea of what the full version of solid looks like, and therefore,
> can guess what a useful subset can be.
>
> What do folks think about a simple lite subset of solid, with a
> streamlined process, set of test, developer on ramp, lighter process and
> useful eco system with full upgrade to 1.0 when it is there, via adding
> additional tests, from the test suite.
>