[IronPython] IronPython future development plan so far

[Jim Hugunin]

There've been many good questions about the future of IronPython development
and about how people can most effectively contribute to further development.
I want to thank everyone who's offered to help.  I've sometimes been
frustrated by people who complain about open source projects not moving fast
enough and want the lead developers to just work harder.  Those people who
don't just complain but offer to work to make things better are one of the
best parts of a good open source community.

I want to let you all know as much as I can today about my future
development work on IronPython.  I still expect to lead the development of
IronPython to a stable and complete 1.0 release.  One part of my decision to
go to Microsoft is to have an employer who will fully support me in
achieving this.  I know that I could never have found the time to do this on
my own as a hobby project.

It's been roughly one month since I released IronPython-0.6.  Since then,
I've started a new job at Microsoft and I'm still in the middle of moving my
family to the state of Washington.  I've also been busy working out the
right plan for me to continue to work on IronPython as a Microsoft employee.
I'm making good progress on this, but this work within Microsoft is not yet
done.  I have great confidence the resulting plan will be one that will make
the developer community happy.  If the plan doesn't work for developers,
then it just doesn't make sense.

I'd like to ask you all to be patient with me for a little longer while I
work on the best plan to drive IronPython forward to a great future.

-Jim

PS - In case I didn't have enough interesting distractions going on, I'm
going to be spending the next two days at the scipy conference at Cal Tech
where I get to deliver a keynote address.  Don't tell Eric that my talk is
still being written.