[larsivi]

First off; The number of members and their roles should be discussed in the steering group thread.
Second off; I think all nominees should present themselves here with their real name (I think the responsibility is too big for any member to be anonymous.), who they are and their relevant experience and qualifications.

qbert has nominated:

Eric 'Pragma' Anderton
Kris 'antiAlias' Bell
Ben 'MinTL' Hinkle
Sean Kelly (I presume)

[sean]

You've already got my name right. As for qualifications... I think forum participation and such is a far more useful resource than a resume-type list, but here's a bit of data anyway: I've been a profressional software engineer for ~12 years and know C++ and the STL pretty darn well. I've been a fairly active participant in most of the popular C++ groups for quite a while (comp.lang.c++.moderated, comp.std.c++, Boost) and know all sorts of acronyms, other languages, etc. Most of my project work has been in designing high-availability servers and distributed systems, and one of these says I'd like to get into AI research (swarms rule). I'm currently working at a company that does high-end financial software and am moving from some work on a hedge fund accounting package to do library programming on Solaris. D addresses many of the complaints I have about C++ and I think it has tremendous potential as a language.

[pragma]

About myself: I've been a software engineer for going on 6 years now, but I've been familiar with c++ as early as 12 years ago. I consider myself an extremely lucky individual as the mid-nineties brought the information age to my very backdoor (literally, ask me sometime).

In my time as both a salaried employee and a freelance contractor all over the Dulles Corridor, I have gained a wealth in knowledge of programming languages, design/development techniques, and working with groups extremely diverse groups of people.

My bookshelf only has three useful books: Design Patterns, The UML Reference and the Pragmatic Programmer. They're all I've ever needed to work in any language; I always look up syntax online anyway.

I feel that D is one of the greatest things to happen to practical programming in a long while, and that this project should help boost its utility and appeal to other programmers. I have also founded the 'DSP' project here on dsource to also help D's appeal to others. I'm confident that 'Ares' will manage to accomplish this on a much bigger scale.
_________________
-- !Eric.t.Anderton at gmail

[qbert]

Cool looks good! I don't think ben follows the forums I'll try to email him, and kris said he was going sailling, so well here from him when he gets back, does anyone else have any nonimations / thoughts ?

[BenHinkle]

What about Matthew Wilson? I don't always agree with his D code but he was the one who started the thread on the D newsgroup about phobos development.

As for myself being involved I suppose it depends on what the actual responsibilities are. Will this group be actively developing and designing or just reviewing and assembling other libraries? Why can't the design stuff be done on the main newsgroup where everyone can chime in. After the designs settle down it gets emailed to Walter who can put it in etc or std or send it back. If the point of this group is to be a sounding-board before people send things to Walter then that sounds fine to me. I just don't think I have the time (or desire) to rewrite Phobos.

anyhow, my history goes BASIC/Z80-assembly -> Pascal -> Object-Pascal/C -> C/C++ -> C++/Java -> C++/Java/MATLAB. Thrown in during school was lisp/scheme/Maple. I worked for Waterloo Maple (maker of Maple) for a couple of years. I've worked for MathWorks (makers of MATLAB) for 5 years. Before that got a phd in dynamical systems and worked on MacMath (math programs for the Mac).

[sean]

Matthew would be a good candidate if he's willing to do it.

And I think this group will be both building stuff and reviewing/assembling other libraries. Kind of like Boost is for C++. So it would be a sounding board of sorts, though I don't want to operate on the assumption that all of what's already in Phobos will stay there.

As for the forum... I agree that this project would get more visibility (and participation) if it were done in the DigitalMars newsgroups, but stuff has a way of getting missed in the general group. At least this way everything is still public for whoever is interested, and perhaps there could be a prominent link in the D Wiki or some such. I suppose an alternate would be to ask Walter to create another NG for library talk.

[larsivi]

[jcc7]

[qbert]

[jcc7]

[quote="qbert"]

[qbert]

Aye!

[larsivi]

[pragma]

[kris]

Folks;

I've been abstaining from making comment over the last week because I have some concerns - the foremost of which is this: writing good libraries is not as straightforward as it may seem. There's typically a lot of subtlety and tradeoff involved, and handling that effectively requires some practice. If that were not the case, then one might imagine Walter would have got it right, and this forum would not exist. I mean, Walter is a smart guy.

To draw an analogy: I'm lucky enough to have some very bright and capable friends ~ some of whom know a bit about construction. However, I wouldn't wish them to build the foundation for my house.

This PhobosRising thing is about building the foundation for a palace; the library is presumeably intended to be a crown jewel in the D arsenel. In terms of functionality, accessability, and setting a path for others to follow. This task needs smart people like yourselves, it needs good organization, and it needs some co-operation from Walter himself. But most of all, setting an overall design and/or direction needs true, solid, experience with the task at hand. If you guys have those skills, then great! It's just that I haven't noticed any discussion regarding said experience.

Another thing to consider is whether the DSLG should be an administrative body, a design group, or a bit of both. Currently, it seems headed toward "design group" mode. Naturally, you'd need different candidates for a different approach.

I do, very much, appreciate the nomination ~ but cannot accept. Instead, I'd like to cast my nomination for Lars, who seems quite keen on the organizational aspect.

[jcc7]