Has the hula hoop fallen?
Apr. 6th, 2006 05:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jbaileyLast weekend I found myself looking for something to hack on that wasn't something I see during my work day. I took a look at Hula. I've wanted something like this for use at home. It would be nice if ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
auzure_skies and I could see one another's calendar, have our own Jabber server, and have easy access to our email through a local client or through webmail.
There seem to be a steady stream of commits to Hula's SVN, but almost no discussion on the mailing list. I've sent in one patch to the Makefile so that make dist would run (accepted), and sent another asking for design information (No answer yet). In general, the codebase seems crufted with a bunch of legacy NetWare concepts. It's written in at least four languages (C, C , C#, and Python) and doesn't seem to have a testsuite. The code also currently doesn't run on powerpc without segfaulting.
Ah well. Anyone know if there's another project that has similar aims and goals? Basically some sort of server software that will handle almost all of what evolution can hand to it, plus some sort of extensible interface so that it's reasonably easy to add things like Jabber servers, RSS/Atom Aggregators, etc.
auzure_skies and I could see one another's calendar, have our own Jabber server, and have easy access to our email through a local client or through webmail.There seem to be a steady stream of commits to Hula's SVN, but almost no discussion on the mailing list. I've sent in one patch to the Makefile so that make dist would run (accepted), and sent another asking for design information (No answer yet). In general, the codebase seems crufted with a bunch of legacy NetWare concepts. It's written in at least four languages (C, C , C#, and Python) and doesn't seem to have a testsuite. The code also currently doesn't run on powerpc without segfaulting.
Ah well. Anyone know if there's another project that has similar aims and goals? Basically some sort of server software that will handle almost all of what evolution can hand to it, plus some sort of extensible interface so that it's reasonably easy to add things like Jabber servers, RSS/Atom Aggregators, etc.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
Hula hoop hasn't fallen
Date: 2006-04-07 07:01 am (UTC)I won't argue with the code base quality, you're basically right. However, it was much worse when it was released. There are two options: a) do a Mozilla, or b) do a OpenOffice.org. While there are pros/cons with both approachs, I think the evolution rather than revolution approach is correct in this case: the basic Hula design and architecture is sound and tested, most of the problems are at a local code level rather than an architectural level.
That's not to say there's no revolution: the queue system has been refactored, and the main mailstore - the heart of the system - is being completely replaced. Also, the upcoming caldav support is completely new.
There were no testsuites when it released, there are now: if you look around you'll find a few, and they'll only grow.
I'm not trying to convince you to change your mind; Hula at this stage isn't really ready for use (indeed, earlier versions where much more useful). But, sometime this summer it will start becoming useful and I wouldn't dismiss it yet.