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Date: Thu, 13 Aug 2009 23:52:42 -0700
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Subject: Apache sub-projects
From: Chris Anderson <jchris@apache.org>
To: dev@couchdb.apache.org
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Many Apache projects have sub-projects, for two good example see:

http://hadoop.apache.org/ which has 9 sub-projects

http://lucene.apache.org/ which has 10

I think one benefit of having sub-projects is broadening the
community. I think it also helps to give people looking at CouchDB for
the first time an easier way to see some of the really cool tools and
libraries it's offers.

Also, I think it sounds relaxing. Being able to keep an eye on a more
of the Apache-licensed CouchDB ecosystem in one repository I think
will result in stronger code.

I'd like to see a few projects out there become sub-projects, and
maybe there are others we should include as well. Here's a list of 3:

The CouchDB-Lounge project provides a CouchDB clustering via a smart
HTTP proxy. I can see bringing that code in, and using it as a
scaffold for our Erlang clustering infrastructure. If we do it right,
deployments will have wide flexibility over which tools to use to
scale CouchDB, being able to mix, say, CouchDB-Lounge's consistent
hashing nginx-proxy for document CRUD, but use Erlang view merger or
other cluster-optimized view engine. If someone is already a heavy
nginx shop, but doesn't want to merge views in twisted python, they
could see benefits to a mix and match architecture.

Informally I asked Kevin Ferguson of CouchDB-Lounge if they'd be
interested and he said it sounds great.

CouchApp is a set of scripts to make deploying CouchDB design
documents easy. I've been involved in it for a while, and Benoit has
put a lot of time into it. The tool and the JavaScript framework it
goes with are starting to have a community, and should gain more
interest when the O'Reilly book goes to press. Benoit Chesneau is
excited about bringing CouchApp into the CouchDB project.

CouchDB-Lucene is another good candidate. I haven't asked Robert
Newson yet what he thinks about it, but I think the project would be a
good fit.

There may be more candidates I'm missing, or maybe people will think
I'm batty for having the idea in the first place... comments welcome.

Cheers,
Chris


-- 
Chris Anderson
http://jchrisa.net
http://couch.io