Message-ID: <Q8wFPIAqpLO5Ew82@ruffnready.co.uk>
Date: Sat, 3 Jun 2000 08:57:30 +0100
To: wkt@cs.adfa.edu.au
Cc: Unix Heritage Society <pups@minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au>
From: Robin Birch <robin@ruffnready.co.uk>
Subject: Re: Warren's Position on Future of PUPS/TUHS
References: <200006030158.LAA08504@henry.cs.adfa.edu.au>
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In message <200006030158.LAA08504@henry.cs.adfa.edu.au>, Warren Toomey
<wkt@cs.adfa.edu.au> writes
>Hi all,
>       Well I've had a few comments back from people about the future of
>things on the PUPS & TUHS front. I've sat down & knocked up a short
>proposal which I'd be happy with. The overarching goal is to give everybody
>what they want :-) Anyway, send me comments and suggestions, or plain old
>disagreements!
>
>Thanks,
>       Warren
>
Sounds basically ok to me

Robin
>
>       A Discussion Paper on The Future of PUPS, TUHS and the Archive
>       ==============================================================
>
>Policy
>------
>
>The PDP-11 Unix Preservation Society (PUPS) goes back to being a group
>specifically focussed on the versions of Unix for the PDP-11 platform.
>
>The Unix Heritage Society (TUHS) will be an umbrella group to support
>efforts to preserve or maintain all versions of Unix that are no longer
>considered to be mainstream. The type of support is outlined below.
>
>Mechanism
>---------
>
>The pups@minnie mailing list will remain an ``all-encompassing'' mailing
>list for those people who are active in, or interested in, the aims of the
>Unix Heritage Society. It will be renamed to be tuhs@minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au
>If enough people request it, a PUPS-specific mailing list will be set up.
>
>As part of TUHS aim of support, mailing lists on minnie can be set up
>for those groups who wish to come under the TUHS umbrella. One or more
>people from each group will be the list maintainer.
>
>If the information is not huge, minnie can offer web space for these
>groups, too. I'm already doing this for the Quasijarus project.
>
>The PUPS Archive will be renamed `The Unix Heritage Archive'. The top-level
>will contain files & information that is generic. There will be sublevels
>in the form platform/vendor/version. We might need some other categories
>for multi-platform systems like the 4BSDs. As an example, nearly all of the
>current archive will move under a PDP-11/ directory. But directories like
>Applications/ and Lists/ will stay where they are.
>
>If possible and where there are volunteers, each section of the archive
>will be maintained by its own maintainer. Minnie will provide disk space
>for all sections, so that there is a `one-stop' place to keep things.
>However, some groups may want to maintain a separate archive & existence.
>In this case, TUHS will set up pointers to their efforts.
>
>
>Volunteers & Mirrors
>--------------------
>
>Some of the existing volunteers and archive mirror maintainers may not
>wish to maintain a copy of the full TUHS archive. That's their perogative.
>In fact, it might be useful to `name' each section of the full archive.
>For example, someone might only want to mirror the VAX section. Perhaps
>this can be called the VAX Unix Archive.
>
>I can modify the mechanism of ordering archive copies so that:
>
>       + specific volunteers can nominate which archive sections they carry
>       + requesters can order specific sections, or all, and find out how
>         big each section is
>       + requests will only be sent to those volunteers who can do them
>
>
>Copyright & License Issues
>--------------------------
>
>At present, most things in the archive are protected by licenses and/or
>copyright. This probably isn't going to change soon. The current mechanisms
>to ensure access by license holders will be preserved.
>
>Given the aims of TUHS, I am prepared to keep in the archive anything that
>is Unix-related for antiquated or non-mainstream systems. We may not
>be able to release some of this due to license or copyright reasons. In
>that case, it will be kept hidden away in the archive until it can be
>released. It won't be mirrored or be available for copying in any way
>until that time.
>
>A Personal Note
>---------------
>
>I'd like to maintain the PDP-11 archive, and initially do the TUHS stuff
>(including web pages, mailing lists, top-level of the archive). I'll set
>up platform-specific (or other-specific) levels as long as there is someone
>who will volunteer to maintain that area, and any web pages and mailing
>lists associated with them.
>
>It would also be a good idea to have an understudy or two in the wings,
>just in case I get hit by a bus or something.
>
>Conclusion
>----------
>
>I'm sure there are other issues (especially implementation ones) that
>I've missed above, but hopefully you get the general idea of my proposal
>for future direction of PUPS and TUHS.

____________________________________________________________________
Robin Birch     robin@ruffnready.co.uk

M1ASU/2E0ARJ/M5ABD     Old computers and radios always welcome