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| author | Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com> | 2002-07-28 09:42:58 +0000 |
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| committer | Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com> | 2002-07-28 09:42:58 +0000 |
| commit | db31f1aadc6eaa6189f868ded4f02be57a5c35d4 (patch) | |
| tree | 631237d6dce13f3eec3d7dda2d464ec0abda4172 /history.html | |
| parent | 1a33867af347d2439bb03f2559b8e0ae915d2483 (diff) | |
| download | fetchmail-db31f1aadc6eaa6189f868ded4f02be57a5c35d4.tar.gz fetchmail-db31f1aadc6eaa6189f868ded4f02be57a5c35d4.tar.bz2 fetchmail-db31f1aadc6eaa6189f868ded4f02be57a5c35d4.zip | |
Cleanup.
svn path=/trunk/; revision=3674
Diffstat (limited to 'history.html')
| -rw-r--r-- | history.html | 79 |
1 files changed, 40 insertions, 39 deletions
diff --git a/history.html b/history.html index 22d7a2fa..ea268b07 100644 --- a/history.html +++ b/history.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -<!doctype HTML public "-//W3O//DTD W3 HTML 3.2//EN"> +<!doctype HTML PUBLIC "-//W3O//DTD W3 HTML 3.2//EN"> <HTML> <HEAD> <link rev=made href=mailto:esr@snark.thyrsus.com> @@ -7,102 +7,103 @@ <TITLE>Trends in the fetchmail project's growth</TITLE> </HEAD> <BODY> -<table width="100%" cellpadding=0><tr> +<table width="100%" cellpadding=0 summary="Canned page header"><tr> <td width="30%">Back to <a href="/~esr">Eric's Home Page</a> <td width="30%" align=center>Up to <a href="/~esr/sitemap.html">Site Map</a> -<td width="30%" align=right>$Date: 2001/03/01 04:15:03 $ -</table> +<td width="30%" align=right>$Date: 2002/07/28 09:42:58 $ +</tr></table> <HR> <H1 ALIGN=CENTER>Trends in the fetchmail project's growth</H1> -The scattergram below was made with Gnuplot 3.7 from data pulled +<p>The scattergram below was made with Gnuplot 3.7 from data pulled directly out of the project NEWS file using two custom shellscripts, <a href="timeseries">timeseries</a> and <a href="growthplot">growthplot</a>. If you see a broken-image icon, upgrade to a <a href="http://www.libpng.org/pub/png/pngapbr.html">browser that -can view PNGs</a>.<p> +can view PNGs</a>.</p> -<center><img src="growth.png"></center><p> +<center><img src="growth.png" alt="Fetchmail trends graph"></center> -The graph shows the population growth of the fetchmail project. The +<p>The graph shows the population growth of the fetchmail project. The horizontal scale is days since baseline, which is when I started collecting statistics in October 1996 at version 1.9.0. Left vertical scale is number of participants. There is one data point for each release; therefore, the changes in density of marks indicate release -frequency.<p> +frequency.</p> -The peak in the earliest part of the graph (before the note "Bad +<p>The peak in the earliest part of the graph (before the note "Bad addresses dropped") seems to be an artifact; I was not regularly dropping addresses that became invalid at the time. Turnover on the list seems to be about 5% per month (but that's just my estimate, I -don't have numbers on this).<p> +don't have numbers on this).</p> -The <font color="blue">blue scatter of squares</font> is total +<p>The <font color="blue">blue scatter of squares</font> is total participants. The <font color="lime">green scatter of crosses</font> is the count of people on fetchmail-friends after I split the list. The <font color="purple">violet scatter of triangles</font> is the population -of fetchmail-announce after the split.<P> +of fetchmail-announce after the split.</p> -The <font color="brown">brown scatter of diamonds</font> tracks project +<p>The <font color="brown">brown scatter of diamonds</font> tracks project size in lines of code (right vertical axis). The scale relationship -between this scatter and the other three is arbitrary.<p> +between this scatter and the other three is arbitrary.</p> -This graph is quite revealing. Several trends stand out: <p> +<p>This graph is quite revealing. Several trends stand out: </p> <ul> <li> -Over time, the project population displays rather consistent linear growth.<p> +<p>Over time, the project population displays rather consistent linear growth.</p> <li> -The key event in the project's lifetime was release 4.3.0 in October +<p>The key event in the project's lifetime was release 4.3.0 in October 1997, when I declared the code to be out of development and in -maintainance mode, and split the fetchmail list.<p> +maintainance mode, and split the fetchmail list.</p> <li> -The run-up to 4.3.0 saw the most intensive spate of releases in the +<p>The run-up to 4.3.0 saw the most intensive spate of releases in the project's history (the gap in that run happened when I took a two-week -vacation). It was followed by a significant slowdown.<p> +vacation). It was followed by a significant slowdown.</p> <li> -After 4.3.0, the developer population remained fairly stable around -an average of about 250 participants.<p> +<p>After 4.3.0, the developer population remained fairly stable around +an average of about 250 participants.</p> <li> -Essentially all population growth after 4.3.0 happened on the announce list, -among people using fetchmail but not active co-developers.<p> +<p>Essentially all population growth after 4.3.0 happened on the announce list, +among people using fetchmail but not active co-developers.</p> <li> -The growth trend in code size looks sublinear, perhaps logarithmic. +<p>The growth trend in code size looks sublinear, perhaps logarithmic.</p> </ul> -The linear growth trend in population is particularly interesting; a +<p>The linear growth trend in population is particularly interesting; a priori we might expect geometric or logistic growth, given that the -project spreads by word of mouth.<P> +project spreads by word of mouth.</p> -It has been suggested that the linear growth rate is the result of a +<p>It has been suggested that the linear growth rate is the result of a situation in which both number of projects and the population of eligible programmers are rising on trend curves of the same (probably -exponential) rate.<p> +exponential) rate.</p> -There are some other pages doing similar things:<p> +<p>There are some other pages doing similar things:</p> <ul> <li> -<a href="http://kitenet.net/programs/debhelper/stats/">Here</a> -are growth statistics on the debhelper packaging utility.<p> +<p><a href="http://kitenet.net/programs/debhelper/stats/">Here</a> +are growth statistics on the debhelper packaging utility.</p> <li> -<a href="http://durak.org:81/sean/pubs/kfc/">Here</a> is a page on the -vocabulary of the Linux kernel.<p> +<p><a href="http://durak.org:81/sean/pubs/kfc/">Here</a> is a page on the +vocabulary of the Linux kernel.</p> </ul> <HR> -<table width="100%" cellpadding=0><tr> +<table width="100%" cellpadding=0 summary="Canned page header"><tr> <td width="30%">Back to <a href="/~esr">Eric's Home Page</a> <td width="30%" align=center>Up to <a href="/~esr/sitemap.html">Site Map</a> -<td width="30%" align=right>$Date: 2001/03/01 04:15:03 $ -</table> +<td width="30%" align=right>$Date: 2002/07/28 09:42:58 $ +</tr></table> -<P><ADDRESS>Eric S. Raymond <A HREF="mailto:esr@thyrsus.com"><esr@thyrsus.com></A></ADDRESS> +<br clear="left"> +<ADDRESS>Eric S. Raymond <A HREF="mailto:esr@thyrsus.com"><esr@thyrsus.com></A></ADDRESS> </BODY> </HTML> |