--- /dev/null
+---
+postid: 082
+title: Schedule for Republican work, February - April 2019
+date: February 3, 2019
+author: Lucian Mogoșanu
+tags: tmsr
+---
+
+It is said, and by now well-known as a matter of fact, that making
+roasted cabbage out of one's priorities, words and assumptions
+inevitably [leads to pain][diana], which, when improperly digested[^1],
+itself leads to a feedback loop of further pain, spilled guts and
+[rivers of blood][trilema-rob]. This is how, back in November, after
+months of [rollercoaster-ing][heraklion], I've ended up in a
+[similar situation][btcbase-1874131]; and how, after further
+rollercoaster-ing and making the conscious decision of settling down
+into something that's [more than a rat race][btcbase-1871475], I've
+arrived at this particular point in time and space.
+
+It occurs to me[^2], after circa three years of following the unfolding
+history of The Most Serene Republic, and about a year and a half of just
+beginning to participate, that this is by far the most interesting,
+intellectually challenging (and demanding), fun, promising, etc. project
+one could think of, or in any case, the only (as far as I know) serious
+thing happening while the world's busy derping about. So since it's
+finally occured to me, it's high time I set a (realistic, I hope)
+schedule for my short-term work, also taking into account
+[saecular][saeculum] matters. Furthermore, I will have a glance into
+other future work and invite members of the Lordship to comment on
+priorities.
+
+My schedule for the following two months or so revolves mainly around
+making the feedbot code publicly available. I have set the following
+timeline for myself:
+
+* Feedbot maintenance, debugging and development workflow improvement:
+ this remains ongoing work throughout the following period, as
+ [small issues][btcbase-1890616] continue to appear;
+* Reading and publishing XML parser code: 16th of February;
+* Reading and publishing RSS parser code: 2nd of March;
+* Refactoring and polishing the core functionality, gnarl removal,
+ exposing a clean API for the feedbot programmer: 24th of March;
+* Full feedbot V patch: 6th of April.
+
+On the medium and long term, my queue contains other tasks that are
+either more ample and require further planning, or they are hard to
+estimate because of (potentially unknown) unknowns. Currently on the
+list:
+
+* [Ircbot][ircbot] sometimes (often? always?) fails to reconnect when
+ Freenode weather goes bad, resulting in [deedbot][deedbot-down] and
+ [feedbot][feedbot-down] outages. This bug remains somewhat elusive, as
+ it's not immediately clear what causes it -- judging by
+ [the code][ircbot.lisp], it *should* reconnect automatically.
+* The current incarnation of the Common Lisp curl library known as
+ [Drakma][drakma] (used by, among others, feedbot) is a mixed ball of
+ usefuls and shit, and so it could use a V genesis-ization and a
+ TRB-style cleanup, e.g. removing SSL from it.
+* [Adalisp exists][adalisp], but it's not immediately useful, i.e. there
+ is basic functionality missing that prevents it from being a (or the)
+ proper Republican scripting language. This item is especially relevant
+ in the light of the emergence of the
+ [Republican Linux distribution][cuntoo].
+* Speaking of which: I myself haven't installed the current incarnation
+ of Cuntoo yet. Furthermore, it's likely that vpatch grabbing from
+ within Cuntoo will be a [bot-driven service][btcbase-1875439] that can
+ stand upon the current [botworks][botworks] tree.
+* Catching up with [FFA][ffa], testing the [Keccak TRB regrind][trb],
+ and many others.
+
+Comments are, as usually, more than welcome.
+
+**Update, February 4, 2019**: comments in the forum have led to the
+following items being added to my queue:
+
+* The Tar Pit blogotron has [various shortcomings][btcbase-1892216] that
+ require attention, some of which have been known ever since I started
+ working on the new and improved [blog scaffolding][devlog], but which
+ have been shelved due to other tasks taking priority. More urgent
+ remains the need for a V genesis of the thing. Although I'm not sure
+ if my Lisp-based blog scaffolding is going to be a replacement for
+ [MP-WP][mp-wp] in the foreseeable future, it remains a good exercise
+ in building a Common Lisp-based blog from first principles, adding as
+ much functionality as possible from MP-WP over time -- e.g. comments,
+ pingbacks, anti-spam and many others. As a first step, I will have to
+ break everything into a set of well-specified tasks, followed by an
+ actual plan.
+* The so-called [Project Gutenberg][gutenberg] is
+ [not long for this world][btcbase-1892264], and thus I and/or another
+ hero will have to salvage it while it's still online. Fortunately,
+ [it seems][btcbase-1892267] a rsync away, so I should be able to give
+ it a shot by the end of the current week.
+
+[^1]: The pain, although we could probably say the same about the
+ cabbage.
+
+[^2]: To be fair, I was hit by this way back when, (re)reading
+ [Trilema][trilema] and the writings predating it (meanwhile no
+ longer online), discovering [Loper OS][loper-os] and then spending
+ countless sleepless nights going through the rabbit holes that are
+ [the logs][btcbase] and the Lordship's blogs, I repeatedly went
+ "well, what in the blazing bowels of Beelzebub am *I*
+ [doing with my life][kto-ty-po-zhizni]?"
+
+ It took quite a while to properly put it into words.
+
+[diana]: http://ossasepia.com/2018/02/06/its-only-words-and-assumptions-and-priorities-and-ouch/
+[trilema-rob]: http://trilema.com/2018/the-rivers-of-blood-article-or-the-lordship-list-fifth-year/
+[heraklion]: /posts/y05/07b-heraklion.html#selection-19.0-25.96
+[btcbase-1874131]: http://btcbase.org/log/2018-11-21#1874131
+[btcbase-1871475]: http://btcbase.org/log/2018-11-12#1871475
+[trilema]: http://trilema.com/
+[loper-os]: http://loper-os.org/
+[btcbase]: http://btcbase.org/log
+[kto-ty-po-zhizni]: http://trilema.com/2017/%D0%9A%D1%82%D0%BE-%D1%82%D1%8B-%D0%BF%D0%BE-%D0%B6%D0%B8%D0%B7%D0%BD%D0%B8/
+[saeculum]: http://btcbase.org/log-search?q=saeculum
+[ircbot]: http://trinque.org/2016/08/10/ircbot-genesis/
+[deedbot-down]: http://btcbase.org/log-search?q=deedbot+down
+[feedbot-down]: http://ossasepia.com/2018/12/16/a-week-in-tmsr-3-9-december-2018/comment-page-1/#comment-4621
+[ircbot.lisp]: http://btcbase.org/patches/ircbot-multiple-channels-corrected/tree/ircbot/ircbot.lisp#L125
+[drakma]: http://btcbase.org/log-search?q=drakma
+[adalisp]: /posts/y04/075-adalisp-prototype-ii.html
+[cuntoo]: http://btcbase.org/log-search?q=cuntoo
+[btcbase-1875439]: http://btcbase.org/log/2018-11-27#1875439
+[botworks]: /posts/y05/080-botworks-regrind.html
+[btcbase-1890616]: http://btcbase.org/log/2019-01-29#1890616
+[ffa]: http://www.loper-os.org/?cat=49
+[trb]: http://blog.mod6.net/?p=26
+[btcbase-1892216]: http://btcbase.org/log/2019-02-03#1892216
+[devlog]: /posts/y03/061-development-log-ii.html
+[mp-wp]: http://btcbase.org/log-search?q=mp-wp
+[gutenberg]: http://gutenberg.org/
+[btcbase-1892264]: http://btcbase.org/log/2019-02-04#1892264
+[btcbase-1892267]: http://btcbase.org/log/2019-02-04#1892267
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