Fwd: [simh] Announcing the Open SIMH project

[Clem Cole]

Announcing the Open SIMH project

SIMH is a framework and family of computer simulators, initiated by Bob Supnik and continued with contributions (large and small) from many others, with the primary goal of enabling the preservation of knowledge contained in, and providing the ability to execute/experience, old/historic software via simulation of the hardware on which it ran. This goal has been successfully achieved and has for these years created a diverse community of users and developers.

This has mapped to some core operational principles:

First, preserve the ability to run old/historically significant software. This means functionally accurate, sometimes bug-compatible, but not cycle-accurate, simulation.

Second, make it reasonably easy to add new simulators for other hardware while leveraging common functions between the simulators.

Third, exploit the software nature of simulation and make SIMH convenient for debugging a simulated system, by adding non-historical features to the environment.

Fourth, make it convenient for users to explore old system environments, with as close to historical interfaces, by mapping them to new features that modern host operating systems provide.

Fifth, be inclusive of people and new technology. It's serious work, but it should be fun.

Previously, we unfortunately never spent the time to codify how we would deliver on these concepts. Rather, we have relied on an informal use of traditional free and open-source principles.

Recently a situation has arisen that compromises some of these principles and thus the entire status of the project, creating consternation among many users and contributors.

For this reason, a number of us have stepped up to create a new organizational structure, which we call "The Open SIMH Project", to be the keeper and provide formal governance for the SIMH ecosystem going forward.  While details of the structure and how it operates are likely to be refined over time, what will not change is our commitment to maintaining SIMH as a free and open-source project, licensed under an MIT-style license as shown on the "simh" repository page.

It is our desire that all of the past users and contributors will come to recognize that the new organizational structure is in the best interests of the community at large and that they will join us in it. However, this iproject as defined, is where we intend to contribute our expertise and time going forward.  At this point, we have in place the following, although we foresee other resources being added in the future as we identify the need and execute against them:

A Github "organization" for the project at https://github.com/open-simh

A Git repository for the simulators themselves at https://github.com/open-simh/simh

The license for the SIMH simulator code base, found in LICENSE.txt in the top level of the "simh" repository. 

The "SIMH related tools" in https://github.com/open-simh/simtools. This is also licensed under MIT style or BSD style open source licenses (which are comparable apart from some minor wording differences).

A "SIMH Steering Group" -- project maintainers and guides.

The conventional git style process is used for code contributions, via pull request to the project repository. The Steering Group members have approval authority; this list is likely to change and grow over time.

By formalizing the underlying structure, our operational principles and guidance can best benefit the community. These are being developed and formalized, with a plan to publish them soon.

We have used our best judgment in setting up this structure but are open to discussion and consideration of other ideas, and to making improvements. Many of us have been part of different projects and understand that past mistakes are real. We have tried to learn from these experiences and apply the collected wisdom appropriately. We desire to hear from the community as we update and refine the operating structure for the Open SIMH project.

We hope for your patience and look forward to your support as we work to refine the organization and be able to provide this wonderful resource for anyone to use as we continue to evolve the technology provided by the SIMH system.

     The SIMH Steering Group
        Clem Cole
        Richard Cornwell
        Paul Koning
        Timothe Litt
        Seth Morabito
        Bob Supnik

ᐧ

[jon....@gmail.com]

Some context may be called for here for people who haven't been following events on the simh github repository or the simh mailing list, and might ask "wait, isn't SIMH already open source?"

Long story short: SIMH was originally authored by Bob Supnik, who maintains SIMH 3.x on his website: he periodically releases new versions of SIMH 3.x there, which have always been open source, but does not maintain any public repository.

Another developer started a Github repository called "simh" in which he maintained a "4.x" branch that had a somewhat more rapid pace of development. As far as I can tell, he initially did this without any connection to Bob's development efforts (other than using Bob's at-the-time most recent release as a starting point), but Bob seems to have become aware of it, linked it on his site, apparently backported some changes from it, and was for a time present on Github and interacted to some degree with other users and developers on the Github project. I'm not sure to what degree he intended to endorse the 4.x effort, but he seems to have been at least friendly to it, and it was the closest thing there was to an "official" rapid-development branch with a public repository.

A bug report was filed by users regarding the way that the 4.x branch handles disk images. The maintainer of the 4.x branch basically responded with "working as intended". A fair number of users were philosophically opposed to the intended behavior, and hence unhappy with the response given, and a few reacted with downright hostility. The more hostile users did not let the subject drop when it became plain that no changes would be made, much to the exacerbation of the 4.x maintainer.

The 4.x maintainer eventually, out of spite, added a clause to the license basically stating that anyone who released any derived code that made any changes to the files implementing the logic under dispute is not authorized to use any changes to SIMH contributed by the 4.x maintainer after he uploaded the new license. Up to this point, whatever one thinks of the way that 4.x handles disk images, he had been acting well within his rights (and *legally* is still doing so), but the changes effectively make his SIMH 4.x repo on Github closed source, which the user base and other developers felt had crossed a red line, but he would not change his mind, developers left, and Bob Supnik removed the link to the 4.x Github repo from his website.

So that brings us to the subject of this thread: A number of developers, including Bob Supnik, have established a new 4.x "open-simh" repo on Github starting from a point just before the license change, with a steering committee of more than just one person (on other projects, a rogue dev like this might be kicked out by the other devs, but the 4.x maintainer was the only person with administrative permissions on the "simh" Github project). This can be considered the repo that has the confidence of the user base and whatever degree of "officialness" Bob wants to bestow upon it (given that he's on the steering committee, I'd assume he views it as the "official" 4.x branch, but I don't want to speak for him, maybe he only really considers 3.x "official", even if he's friendly to development work on 4.x).

How much does this matter to the PiDP-11? Last I knew, the PiDP-11 software package used a fairly old branch of 4.x, so the software we're currently using is unaffected. However, if anyone wants to apply the PiDP-11 patches to the current SIMH PDP-11 code, or if Oscar wants to do so for the official PiDP-11 package, the open-simh github repo, and not the simh github repo, is the one to use.

I've tried to present this as neutrally as possible. The names of the malfeasants involved (both those of the the users that acted with exceptional hostility on github, and that of the 4.x maintainer) have been withheld to protect the guilty.

Long story short, did I say? Well, compared to the flamewars that got us to this point...

Jon Brase

[Neil Higgins]

Well, that’s just bloody fantastic, isn’t it? People just want to get on with their lives, and giant egos get in the way.  It reminds me of Putin, Trump, our Aussie versions of Trump called Abbott and Morrison, Xi Jinping, Kim Jong-un and every other self-infatuated so-and-so on the planet. It is unclear what issue in the handling of disk images caused such strong objections, but to the vast majority of the planet, it was undoubtedly something that could have been resolved in a civilised manner. And if I may say so, this kind of bad behaviour is DESTROYING any optimism in our younger generations for the prospect of a meaningful and sustainable future. Here endeth the rant.

[Mike Ross]

On Mon, Jun 6, 2022 at 8:14 PM jon....@gmail.com <jon....@gmail.com> wrote:

<snip to get at the meat>

The 4.x maintainer eventually, out of spite, added a clause to the license basically stating that anyone who released any derived code that made any changes to the files implementing the logic under dispute is not authorized to use any changes to SIMH contributed by the 4.x maintainer after he uploaded the new license. 

And this is why:

- you only ever use widely-recognised and used licenses

- nobody other than a lawyer should ever attempt to write or rewrite a license

Mike

 

http://www.corestore.org
'No greater love hath a man than he lay down his life for his brother.
Not for millions, not for glory, not for fame.
For one person, in the dark, where no one will ever know or see.'

[andy]

THanks Jon - a good, even-handed summary of how we got here!