Center white paper

[Josef Templ]

My vision of the BlackBox center is that it basically continues the work of
Oberon microsystems Inc. (ominc) with respect to the BlackBox Component Builder.
This means in particular that
- it maintains and distributes the reference version of BlackBox
- it maintains a subsystem registry
- it keeps BlackBox alive on new Windows versions
- it fixes bugs
- it improves the included documentation
- it adds new features as long as they are in line with the spirit of the existing distribution
- it keeps the language, the module interfaces, the document file formats etc. as compatible as possible
- it refrains from dangerous experiments (e.g. multi threading)

In addition to ominc:
- it uses a version management system (git) to keep track of the changes
- it uses an issue tracker to keep track of the requirements and bug reports
- it uses a public open source hosting platform, preferably Google Code because this is closest to the BlackBox spirit
- it uses a continuous integration server such as Jenkins for automated builds
- it provides a Wiki as an additional documentation media
- it adds documentation for internal modules such as, for example, Documents in the Wiki.
- it creates a usenet newsgroup for public discussions

- Josef

[DGDanforth]

Doug Danforth's vision of the Center

(1) Holder of the 'official' version of BlackBox.
(2) Developer of changes to BlackBox.
(2.1) Recipient of requests (and code) for changes.
(2.2) Holder of alpha and beta versions of next release.
(2.3) Discussions on the future of BlackBox (e.g. platform independence, look and feel, ...).
(3) Marketing of BlackBox to the world wide community of software developers and users.
(4) Forum for application developers using BlackBox.
(5) Repository (e.g. CPC) for applications (e.g. App Store).

[Peter Kushnir]

My vision of BlackBox.

I see BlackBox as materialized principle of The Alternative. For years I'm participating on Oberoncore I've observed a huge amount of people that see in BlackBox opposition to Java/C#, but reality is not black-white TV. Todays alternatives, many of independent (indy) tools can have more opportunities for fast building dynamically growing systems.

So first item of my vision is "Alternative".

For years I've studied BlackBox's inner structure, for now for me there is only one dark side of BlackBox - it's Kernel. That's important component, and I know people in community, that know Kernel. And that's OK.
Everything else is familiar for me now. And so, knowledge is power, knowledge is control. When you control your tool - it works effectively and predictable.

This is the second priceless item: "Control".

In the last year I've focused on BlackBox basic portability, that consists of it's principles and patterns. Today, after a number of experiments I can say that BlackBox is one of the tools that can be so personal, as you want, as a developer. When clouds become more and more popular, the standalone BlackBox is only for you. On every platform. Today Kernel supports x86 system, tomorrow it will support every system you want. But it will be good old BlackBox, that you already know.
By "standalone" I mean the primacy of BlackBox over "third-party" resources, OS, cloud platforms.
Ultra lightweight platform for your service.

And that's third item: "Personal portability".

And finally I have one last item about the "Center" vision. This "Center" is a place for keeping basics of BlackBox and Oberon's. Not only "bugtracker" or "code version system", this Center must responsibly posess the core of BlackBox. When BlackBox will have owner, it will have stability, compatibility all over the world community , guaranties of robustness.

I think one of the basic BlackBox principles is "Write once, keep forever".