= --- === --------------------------------------------------------------------- ======= -L- -I- -B- -E- -R- -E- -T- -T- -O- August 1998 ========= ======= The iMatix Newsletter Volume III Issue 8 --- === --------------------------------------------------------------------- = Copyright (c) 1998 iMatix Corporation - distribute freely Back issues at http://www.imatix.com Comments to: editors@imatix.com Programming -- Technology -- Finite State Machines -- News -- Other Stuff == COMMENT ---...-.-...-.--...-.--...-.-...-.....---..-....--.--..-.-.---.-- In July, the largest building in the world opened for business. This structure is so large that an orbiting astronaut or curious alien could spot it, gleaming in the sea off China. Hong Kong International Airport at Chek Lap Kok is a symptom of our age, a project so large that its financing caused serious political problems before the handover of Hong Kong to China in 1997. Today, there are so many problems with the handling of baggage and cargo that the US has put an embargo on cargo coming from Hong Kong. I remember similar problems hitting Denver International Airport when it opened in 1995 and Brussels Airport when they started using a new system for baggage and cargo in 1996. These are not software projects, though software plays a critical role in their success (and failure). But a burning question applies as well to large software projects as it does to these engineering works... why is it that so many large projects fail so badly? In my experience, there are some visible symptoms of a project that is going to get into trouble (if it's not already there). Firstly, a technology-led or technology-driven approach. When a project is led or driven by technology, rather than by the needs of its clients. Technology is so seductive that we often treat it as a goal, rather than a means. This is really obvious, but people keep forgetting it. How many software trends are simply the expression of technology, for its own sake, rather than solutions for real problems? Secondly, teams with different disciplines who don't share the same objectives. You can quickly spot this symptom: teams or individuals working in their corners, each focussed on their part of the work, but never coming together to look at the whole picture. Thirdly, weak project management, which exacerbates the problem of communication. A strong project management team can imprint their vision on diverse teams. Weak management, which lacks a vision or the will to impose it, takes refuge in excessive administration and the assertion of petty control. Fourthly, excessive complexity, always a sign of trouble. Complexity is the last refuge of the incompetent, someone once said. It's the clean, deceptively simple solutions that take skill and time to develop, and which can stand-up to the rigours of the real world. Lastly, insufficient risk analysis. People and systems do fail, and this must be realistically analysed and allowed for in a project. Often the risks are internal: the use of new technology, bad communications, poor project management. Sometimes they're external: politics, budgets, the El Nino (or is it La Nina?) effect. The larger the project, the worse these symptoms can be. In my experience, the failure rate of projects increases as they are built to a larger scale. So, how does one make large projects? Simple: one makes a small project first, then one extends that. Clearly this demands that the kernel of the whole project be well-designed from the start. But a step-wise approach is very robust against unforseen risks, can absorb new technology, and can give teams the time to learn to work together, on a common goal. Unfortunately, it looks like we're still heading for larger, more ambitious projects in the next millenium. Hold-on to your hats and expect more large failures. Pieter Hintjens Antwerpen 1 August 1998 == NEWS -..-..---.-.----.-..-.---..-..---.-..-..----.-.-.---....-.-.---.-..- The little webserver that could - Xitami hits #1! Yes, in July 1998, Xitami topped the charts at internet.com. Look at http://serverwatch.internet.com/top10.html for the current top 10. Xitami was highlighted in "Server Showcase" in July (see http://serverwatch.internet.com/showcase.html), which may have had something to do with it. SFL Library now supports XML XML is a standard format for data files which will be dominant in the next century. It has a universal appeal and real value as a tag language for arbitrary data. You can now read and write XML files using the new sflxml module in the SFL library. Get your hands on this from www.imatix.com. Hint: the latest version of SFL is always packaged with the Xitami source package. Libero 3.x is conceived! After several years of wondering how such a perfect program could get better, the iMatix Corporation Research Labs has finally come back from lunch and started designing Libero, version 3. While we can't give you all the details, here are some of the proposed features of the new Libero tool: XML-based dialog format, web-based editing and code-generation, and object-oriented-style inheritance. == FEEDBACK -..-.-.-.--....-.-.-.--..-...-.--.-....-.-.--...-.-.-.----.-.--- From: "DataRescue sprl" Subject: Re: Liberetto III/7 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- > Pieter Hintjens wrote: > Researchers in the US recently discovered just how important sleep is. > People need a certain amount of sleep (8 to 9 hours) every night. If > you get less sleep, you get stupider. No joke: every hour of sleep > that you don't get, costs you one point of IQ. I've heard they worked three months round the clock the finalize their paper. --- Pierre Vandevenne, MD - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - On the 15th of July we sent out a little note to our Xitami users... "Xitami is now number one on Internet.Com's Top 10 web server list, at http://serverwatch.internet.com/top10.html. Take a look..." We got many replies; these are some of them. From: "Forrest H. Stroud" Subject: Congratulations! ServerWatch Server Showcase Winner ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Congratulations on this -- Xitami has really taken off the last two weeks in terms of number of downloads from ServerWatch. Part of this can be attributed to Xitami being this past week's Server Showcase (see below), but my guess is that Xitami is here to stay (right along with Apache ;-). I meant to send this message last week but forgot all about it until today. We chose Xitami as our showcase server last week -- here's the official message that we send out to the showcase winners: Congratulations! Xitami has been selected as this week's Server Showcase (serverwatch.internet.com/showcase.html) on Internet.com's ServerWatch (http://serverwatch.internet.com), the premier site for Internet server software information. As a selected Server Showcase recipient, Xitami is now a member of an extremely elite group of applications. While only the best servers are even reviewed by ServerWatch, only the very best of the best are honored with the Server Showcase award. From: flying-ferret@charis.co.uk (Alan Silver) Subject: Re: Xitami is #1 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of Xitami, but your claim is grossly misleading. Xitami had the most *downloads* in the past month. That does not make it the number 1 server. With a market share of 0.02% you have a long way to go. I'm all for people celebrating their triumphs, and when you've got a good product shout about it, but let's be a little more honest here. You could have explained the statistic and we would all have been impressed anyway. I like Xitami, I would like to see more people use it, but I also like fair claims to usage. Just a comment, meant to be constructive. -- Alan Silver Flying Ferret Web Services From: Leif Svalgaard" Subject: Re: Xitami is #1 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- If you read their review, there is a page where they say that Xitami's market penetration is 504 copies. Where do they get that number from? And does that jive with being number 1 or 3 or even 10? From: Ryan Szekeres Subject: Re: Xitami is #1 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Could it have something to do with a new release every day? From: Roy Barnard Subject: RE: Xitami is #1 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- I am not surprised at all. It is the best free web server I have see. --- So, Xitami is obviously popular, but still only shows-up as several hundred Internet web sites. The reason for this is simple: the vast majority of Xitami users use their web server on an intranet, or for testing web sites. Most people regard Xitami (rightly or wrongly) as a 'personal' web server, and the standard models of Unix+Apache and NT+IIS will dominate the Internet scene for a long time. We have something like 10,000-15,000 downloads per month from our main site, and an unknown number from our mirror sites and other mirrors like Tucows.com. We serve about 4.000-5.000 new users each month; the rest of the downloads are upgrades to existing users (with an average of about 2 new releases every month). In August we'll be conducting a survey of our registered users to see how many of them use Xitami for Internet sites. Using the Data Sleuthing techniques explained in Liberetto III/6, we'll be able to estimate the real number of Xitami users, world-wide. The results will be published in next month's Liberetto. Hey, Jimi Joergensen, where are your 20,000 virtual hosts? :) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - From: "Williams, Glenn" Subject: T-Shirts in the USA? ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Hi Folks, As a longtime supporter of imatix's free and opensource software development efforts, I thought I should finally breakdown and support the effort by buying your T-shirt! If I send cash through the mail, will you spend it on: 1. Beer 2. Beer and Development 3. Development Seriously, do you really have a t-shirt and if so, how can I order some? Regards, Glenn R. Williams --- Firstly, as we've said often and loudly, if you have to send us cash by mail, just make sure it's legal tender. We're tired of getting pretty but no longer valid 5G notes from our humourous Dutch friends. Next, the iMatix t-shirts appeared to be incompatible with the TCP/IP stack in Windows 98, and kept turning blue with strange messages. We had to send the whole lot back. So, sorry, no t-shirts. Lastly, we did a quick poll in the office as to points 1, 2 and 3, and the consensus was 'yes, indeed!'. There you have it. == OBITUARY ..-.-...----..-...-..---...-.-.-.-.----...-...-.-.-...-.---.--..- BYTE Magazine, RIP 1998. This magazine brought us wide-ranging coverage of topics with an independent and hard-hitting professionalism that is missing from most other computer magazines except Dr Dobb's Journal. In July 1998, BYTE was bought by new owners who suspended publishing and have promised a 'new look BYTE' sometime later this year. Maybe so. But the old look was pretty good already. If you can still find it, get your hands on the last BYTE magazine, which has an excellent feature on the year 2000 problem. == LINK OF THE MONTH .-..-..---.-.--...-.-..---..-....---..-.-.-.--...-.-..-. BYTE magazine, www.byte.com. A sad but still valuable site. == TERMINATE THE PROGRAM -...---...-..----....-.---..---...-...---.-...---.- Until Liberetto gets taken-over in a corporate buy-out, we'll be sending out our little journal every month. You can get off this mailing list by sending us a mail.