Re: Project Status Question

 

-----Original Message-----
From: mat-devel-bounceslists.sourceforge.net
[mailto:mat-devel-bounceslists.sourceforge.net] On
Behalf Of Alejandro
Imass
Sent: Sunday, March 18, 2007 9:59 AM
To: Jiri Baum
Cc: mat-devellists.sourceforge.net
Subject: Re: [MAT-devel] Project Status Question


Thanks for the prompt reply and sorry for my late reply. I
would like to
start by making an introduction on why we joined the list.

We have been given the opportunity to offer a soft plc based
solution
for our national oil company (and one of the largest in the
world). As
you may know, we have a presidential bill since 2004 that
mandates that
the govt. and state-owned companies migrate to free
software.

They already use ISO 61131-3 and have some applications that
they are
willing to give us to test on an oil rig simulator. The deal
is that if
we are able to run their rig application on a pc-based soft
plc using
off-the-shelf components and free software, they will give
us the chance
to test on an actual production rig. If this proof of
concept goes well,
the state would finance our project, which is to build a
really open
national plc, and as you can imagine, our govt. has a lot of
money 

As we are free software hackers ourselves, we would like to
base our
solution on mat-plc and include donations in our estimates
when we
present our final project. If needed, we may include the
hiring of
specific individuals or companies abroad that could directly
help in the
design of this soft-plc solution, and we may include
continuous
financing to the communities that help maintain the free
software
related to the final project. 

This is far from a done deal, but if we pull it off, it may
very well be
a golden opportunity to finance mat-plc to the next level.
But as in any
venture project, we can't make any concrete promises at this
point.

About our background, we are a small group of hackers that
formed a tiny
company in a small city the outskirts of the city of
Caracas, our
country's capital. I formerly worked for a company that
built a national
plc about 15 years ago, using 8085 assembly in a
multitasking
environment we hacked from IRMX 86, so we do have some
concrete
experience in this field. We built everything, from the main
boards to
the I/O modules, and even had an in-house assembly line. Our
plc could
run a home grown Ladder language or could be programmed
directly in C.
We later made versions on the 8051 family, but by that time,
we had a
crazy president that lowered the barrier on imports and
destroyed all
national development in the area. We now have a govt. that
is currently
funding national development and they are giving us the
chance to
substitute foreign proprietary technology for open and
standards-based
home grown technology.

I guess that sums up the intro, and sorry for the noobish
likes of this
mail, as I was unable to previously find the lists archives
to
understand the correct tone and the community behind this
project (and
haven't had the time to browse the link provided bellow by
Jiri Baum).

Any ideas or comments are very welcome, and thanks
beforehand to this
community for providing the basis for our humble project.

Best regards,
Alejandro Imass

 

On Tue, 2007-03-13 at 19:43 +1100, Jiri Baum wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> Alejandro Imass:
> > There are no list archives on sf.net so I would
like to know a bit
on
> > the history and status of this project. Given the
dates of the CVS
> > archive and other information, it seems to be
paused or dead.
Perhaps it
> > has transformed into another project or has been
forked?
> 
> I guess "paused" is the best description...
most of us are still here,
we just 
> don't do much at the moment (due to other
commitments).
> 
> Note that I have converted mat from CVS to bzr earlier
this year, so
if you 
> want to join the project, it's better to use bzr.
Probably branch off
the 
> coruscant release (faster) and then pull my dev branch
to get the
latest.
> bzr branch http://m
at.sourceforge.net/release/coruscant
> bzr pull http://www.
baum.com.au/~jiri/mat/mat-main
> 
> 
> The list archive should be at:
> https://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?forum_i
d=1434
> 
> Jiri

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