Assembly2 Administration (not the same as maintaining)

[Kunda1]

This thread is born out of a recent discussion thread talking about Assembly2, In order to not further hijack that thread, this one has been created.

To clarify, the request is about finding volunteers to administer (not maintain) the Assembly2 repo. Think: trivial fixes or fixes that are not extremely complex and don't drastically change the code the as2 code. For example, an administrator could fix trivial issues like the one reported in issue #3445

The proposal is to transfer (FYI very different from forking) hamish's Assembly2 repo to the Github FreeCAD organization umbrella. The README file can be altered to clearly reflect that as2 is not longer maintained but that there is still functionality it can do + inform of the other Assembly WB endeavors like as3 or a2plus.

Thoughts ?

[triplus]

I don't care how you call it (volunteer, administrator, maintainer, committer ...). In the end you do need one.

[kbwbe]

@triplus, @Kunda1

Solution: collocation of A2plus and assembly2 (already suggested by @easyw-fc)

As my new Workbench A2plus is a fork of Hamish's assembly 2, I could host assembly 2 within my GitHub repository for A2plus (which is to be created).
Doing very trivial bugfixes for assembly 2 should be possible, more not.
Assembly 2 is nearly not maintanable (to much complex mathematics).

But i need a Tutor. I have only basic knowledge on revision controlsystems and i am working at moment with mercurial for own purposes.
So someone has to inform me about best practices using git, especially under FreeCAD umbrella.

kbwbe

[triplus]

After you create GitHub account you could try to contact @hamish2014 and ask him to add you as a collaborator. This is what Roland did in the past. Therefore you would manage pull requests here:

https://github.com/hamish2014/FreeCAD_assembly2

Another option is after you create GitHub account you can fork Assembly 2 repository (press on a button level of difficulty involved) and take pull requests against the fork. Third option i guess is we transfer/fork the repository under FreeCAD umbrella and you get invited to join the FreeCAD organization on GitHub and manage pull requests there.

[triplus]

One idea i had. Adding your solver to Assembly 2 workbench as an option wouldn't make much sense? As Assembly 2 workbench has been around for years. If you look at the stats on GitHub it is highly popular and used. Maybe you could build on that and get some head start? By not competing against Assembly 2 and instead to build upon it?

[kbwbe]

The idea is not bad. Implementing the new solver is not much work to do. But it is not the solver by itself which makes an assembly workbench practicable to work with. Very important is a low number of bugs. I spend a lot of time debugging assembly2.

If i set my code on assembly2, i would have to start debugging again. Also some data structures would have to be changed and perhaps there will be difficulties for users to work with old assemblies.

So, whats better ?
- a clean restart with assembly 2 plus
- rework assembly 2

Suggestions ?

[triplus]

From Assembly 2 workbench point of view.

• Active maintainer
• Porting to Py3/Qt5
• Potential solver improvements

As for porting to Py3/Qt5. I can't be sure but likely you would get some help in the form of pull requests in this area. As for the solver. If i understand A2plus is all about the solver? Therefore if you would be able to figure out some strategy that works for you and to bring your solver to Assembly 2. That might be a viable option to explore. As for existing and future Assembly 2 related feature requests. You would need to evaluate them and in the areas you don't plan to work on it is OK to say no and to close them.

P.S. Note that it is OK if you end up deciding to pursue this two efforts separately.

[kbwbe]

@triplus,

thanks for your suggestions. I think, your proposals are going to much in direction of maintaining assembly2 again.
Assembly2 unfortunately is at it's end of life, too long not maintained.

If i should work on Assembly2, this would lead to a workbench, which is already there: A2plus
Why doing the work again ?

Therefore i would prefer a clear new restart.
Why:
- The workflow of A2plus is nearly identical to Assembly2
- the internal concepts are very similar.
- the constraints work similar
- code is already mostly debugged, downsized and has been made much clearer.
- users of Assembly2 should be able to use it without having to learn everything new.

Only a little bit promotion would be needed to make users migrating from Assembly2 to the new A2plus. Perhaps via the addon-manager.

So first i will register on GitHub. Everything else can be discussed later.

[Kunda1]

thanks for your suggestions. I think, your proposals are going to much in direction of maintaining assembly2 again.
Assembly2 unfortunately is at it's end of life, too long not maintained.

If i should work on Assembly2, this would lead to a workbench, which is already there: A2plus
Why doing the work again ?

Therefore i would prefer a clear new restart.
Why:
- The workflow of A2plus is nearly identical to Assembly2
- the internal concepts are very similar.
- the constraints work similar
- code is already mostly debugged, downsized and has been made much clearer.
- users of Assembly2 should be able to use it without having to learn everything new.

@kbwbe What about As2's issue queue? How many of those open issues are still relevant to A2plus? I think if there were relevant ones you could essentially reference them on the new a2plus repo and then close them with a link to the new issue in A2plus...does that make sense?

[kbwbe]

Hello Kunda1,
thanks for your hint. Next days i will have a deeper look at all the topics of issue queue. Will check which of them are still relevant.
The list is quite long