maccode is a project that gets entirely too little attention - a Google Code project where several related Mac component projects can host their code. The idea is that a community will grow around it and will help out on several projects.
I just had a heated discussion with Chris Forsythe (after having proposed the Resolution Independence project I started be pulled in via svn:externals) and I have a feeling we both misunderstood each other. I want to explain why I’m not considering hosting everything in my project directly inside maccode.
Low level of control over committing. Everyone committing code to one component can commit to any other component. I am not considering that people will do good work on one component yet be belligerent on another, but as maccode gets more successful, it gets less and less practical to understand who does what, where, and that stands as a hindrance both to administrators and members of maccode as well as people trying to contribute finding people to which to talk about doing so.
Low level of control over Google Code features. Google Code allows control over various fields and values in the built-in issue tracking. There’s two things that can be done with a maccode-like project: forgo details completely, or grow a complicated tree of details that makes, say, filing issues harder for everyone.
Low level of focus. maccode doesn’t prevent people from adding wiki pages, but say a particularly challenging component was added that needed 10 wiki pages of documentation. Once maccode encompasses enough projects, or enough challenging projects, it will be harder than should be necessary to maintain a relevant structure of wiki pages.
I don’t mean to spread so-called “FUD” around people hosting their components inside maccode (I encourage everyone to evaluate the benefits and downsides and come to their own conclusion), and I don’t even wish to be the Benevolent Dictator for Life of ‘my’ project; I’m just explaining why I think doing so would bring disadvantages, and what those disadvantages are. If there was a way to move ‘my’ project under maccode in the Google Code project hierarchy without losing its current setup, I would do so in a heartbeat.