[Developers] Google to close Google Code open source project hosting

[Arni Magnusson]

The migration to a new download server was discussed at the developer 
meeting in Reykjavik, while several ADMB Foundation members were connected 
with Skype.

As we bid Google Code farewell, it's worth revisiting some of the points 
raised in section 6 of the report 
(http://admb-project.org/developers/workshop/reykjavik-2013/5thDevelopersWorkshopReport.pdf) 
where we said the following.

[Google Code is obsolete.] It is thus necessary to consider some other way 
of making ADMB available for download. An ideal alternative service would 
offer the same benefits as Google Code, i.e.:

1. Global mirrors, so 100-200 MB can be downloaded fast

2. Complete history of all items ever uploaded

3. Very clean and simple webpage, with no instructions. Shows only the
    current version of each item by default, but deprecated items can be
    shown as well

4. Download counter for every item

5. Excellent filter and sort facilities. For example, searching "all
    downloads" for "ide" gives a very clear version history of ADMB-IDE.

---

I would rate our current setup (http://ftp.admb-project.org) as:

1. GOOD - no mirrors (only UCSB server) but the download speed in Iceland
    is fine.

2. BAD - no history of releases before 11.2.

3. GOOD - it's simple all right.

4. BAD - no download counter.

5. OKAY - I guess we can place different releases in different directories
    (named 9.1, 10.1, 11.0, 11.1, 11.2, etc.) to make them easy to find.

---

The URL (http://ftp.admb-project.org) is rather odd. HTTP and FTP are two 
different protocols - and our current server is HTTP. So using "ftp" in 
the URL is misleading and problematic, much like naming an image file 
foo.tif when it's actually a jpeg file.

In other words, when I type "ftp.admb-project.org" in a web browser, it 
tries for a while and then gives up, because no such FTP server is found. 
I think we should either move to a real FTP server and call it 
ftp://ftp.admb-project.org, or give the HTTP server a less ambiguous and 
less problematic name, such as http://download.admb-project.org.

FTP is very primitive, almost charmingly so. HTTP can serve us better if 
the page displays download counters etc.

---

In summary, should we use ftp://ftp.admb-project.org or 
http://download.admb-project.org as the main URL? Does anyone know how to 
display download counters?

I think the counters are useful for the dev team, as they indicate which 
platforms are most important, guiding decisions regarding old (win32) and 
experimental (clang or something else) platforms. They also give some idea 
about ADMB usage worldwide.

Arni

P.S. After salvaging everything from Google Code, we should make it clear 
on the Google Code webpage that the newest version of ADMB is elsewhere. 
People are still downloading old stuff from there.



On Thu, 12 Mar 2015, Johnoel Ancheta wrote:

> That was expected.
>
>
>
> On Thu, Mar 12, 2015 at 6:52 AM, John Sibert wrote:
>
>> http://feeds.arstechnica.com/~r/arstechnica/index/~3/P9kW93QcfpQ/
>>
>> John Sibert
>> Emeritus Researcher, SOEST
>> University of Hawaii at Manoa
>