| |
Most recent update was on May 29, 1996. If you'd like to
submit something to the FAQ or update something in the FAQ, feel
free to contact Don Yacktman or use our
handy FAQ submission form.
Note: This is preliminary information and some things may
change in the future. This is a snapshot of current plans and
status. Keep watching the MiscKit web site for further imformation
as this project begins.
How on earth was this pulled off?
Well over a year ago a group
petition
was made to NeXT requesting that
NeXT transfer the
IndexingKitTM
and
PhoneKitTM
to the MiscKit so that
neither kit would die. The MiscKit folks could maintain and support
it, leaving NeXT with a way to gracefully drop support of the kits.
The petition was signed by many MiscKit supporters and apparently
made enough of a stir at NeXT to make a dream become reality.
Many thanks are due to Don Yacktman and Darcy Brockbank for
writing and supporting the initial petition and to many people
internal to NeXT for their support and of course to everyone
who was willing to sign the petition.
Given that the initial petition included the PhoneKit,
why isn't the PhoneKit part of the agreement?
According to sources at NeXT, the PhoneKit includes code that
NeXT has licensed from a third party. Apparently this code
cannot be redistributed, so NeXT is unable to allow the MiscKit
organization to have the PhoneKit. Furthermore, the third party
code is rumored to be important enough (and woven throughout the
kit) that getting the kit without the third party code would
be useless. Therefore, NeXT is not planning at this time to
pass the PhoneKit on to the MiscKit in a similar way as they
have done with the IndexingKit and
3DKitTM. Because
of the
difficulties with the PhoneKit, the MiscKit is not actively
pursuing the PhoneKit anymore. Sorry to say it folks, but the
PhoneKit is dead.
How will the IndexingKit and 3DKit be distributed?
Both kits will still remain independent of the MiscKit proper.
There are several reasons for this, including:
- The MiscKit comes with source code. The IndexingKit and 3DKit
sources will not be publically distributed due to licensing restrictions.
- Many people use the IndexingKit or the 3DKit but do not use
the MiscKit. We don't want to force people into using the MiscKit.
If they have other tools they prefer, we respect that.
There will be a .pkg file for each kit, which can be installed on
an OPENSTEP for Mach system. The .pkg files will be distributed
from the same places and via the same media as the MiscKit, but
they will not be in the same .tar archive. This means you only
have to download the kits you actually plan to use.
What about the source code? How can I get it?
The terms of the agreement do not allow the source code for
either kit to be publically distributed. However, a select
few MiscKit workers will be able to help in maintaining the
code for the kits. At this time it has not been decided who
these people will be nor how many people will be put on each
team. However, we do know that the working team for each kit
will be fairly small. If you seriously want to be a part of the
development team for either or both of the kits, you can skip
the rest of this answer and go to the request
form. If you aren't sure,
check to see if you meet these criteria:
- You have enough time to actually be able to contribute.
- You aren't legally bound by your current employer in such a
way that you cannot return your fixes and enhancements.
- You already have a solid foundation in the kit(s) you wish
to participate in and use them yourself.
- You aren't expecting to get paid for any of your work.
The above criteria are not absolute requirements, but they
do encapsulate some of the things that Don will be looking
for as he chooses the teams for maintaining the kits. The
reason for being selective is that only a limited number of
people will be able to participate, so we want to assure that
the people working on the project are the best we can get.
This will hopefully ensure that all those who use these kits
will achieve the maximum benefit.
For more detailed information, check out the easy to use
form
for requesting to be put onto a team. It tells you more about
what you would be getting yourself into and will set things in
motion for you!
On which platforms will these kits be useable?
The initial release will be for OPENSTEP for Mach. The license
agreement with NeXT allows us to make ports, so we hope to be
able to have ports running on all OPENSTEP platforms
eventually. However, since the maintenance teams have not
yet been assembled, it is impossible to even guess when such
ports would become available--if ever. We hope and plan to
do it, but no promises are being made yet.
It should be noted that the versions of these kits distributed
by the MiscKit will not run on NEXTSTEP systems. They
will only work in OPENSTEP environments. This is because NeXT
has licensed only the technology in the kits themselves and
not the shared library technology required to build libraries
for NEXTSTEP systems. Since NEXTSTEP systems already have both
kits as a standard feature, this shouldn't matter much.
What will happen to Digital Librarian now?
The short answer is: I don't know. However, NeXT still
retains their rights to both kits and the MiscKit development
teams will be returning updated versions of the source code to
NeXT so that they can continue to use the kits. This means that
Digital Librarian, which uses the Indexing Kit, could still be
kept alive by NeXT if they choose to do so. Anything NeXT does
will be independent of this agreement, but we see no reason why
NeXT would stop supporting Librarian at this point. This same
logic would go for every other app from NeXT that uses either
kit; they may or may not continue to support them, but the details
of this agreement shouldn't affect NeXT's decision in any way.
Of course, we cannot speak for NeXT, so if you really want the
answer to this question, you should ask them directly.
|
|
Questions? Contact our
webmaster via email to
don@misckit.com.
NeXT, the NeXT logo, IndexingKit, 3DKit, PhoneKit, OPENSTEP,
and NEXTSTEP are
trademarks or registered trademarks of NeXT Software, Inc.
All other
trademarks mentioned belong to their respective owners.
.
|
