[slim-vim] Slim-vim, future and milestones.

[Brad Beveridge]

This started off as a request for some documentation cleanup, and
turned into a rough timeline...

Things have come a long long way since our current project page was
last updated (http://wiki.alu.org/Perl_interface_to_SLIME, and
http://wiki.alu.org/Gardeners_Projects).

These pages really need to be added to and cleaned up.  The Perl page
needs to be marked historic and have obvious links added to a new page
describing Slim-vim.  Slim-vim really needs a new page that is
structured similarly to the old Perl page, but with updated
information.
Also, we need to google for things like "vim lisp" "vim slime" and
change the top hits to include references to Slim-vim, or contact
maintainers of "Using Lisp with Vim" style pages and make them aware
of us.  Any volunteers? :)

This might sound ambitious, but I would like to see a Slim-vim alpha
release by the end of July, and a beta release by the end of August.
This is actually doable, I'm making good progress and we have
reference code in the form of existing Slime, and we have a very well
defined feature set.  I think that it might be time to start getting
non-code things (documentation, googleability) prepped for the end of
July, and I'd like to generate a bit of excitement for this project.
I don't really want to "announce" to CLL until we reach a solid alpha,
but I would like to tell the Gardeners about Slim-vim at the start of
July (pre-alpha) and try to get some more users and testers.

What do you guys think?  How many people are willing to:
1) Use Slim-vim in its pre-alpha form, ie right now and for another
5/6 weeks? (Note, I expect that I'll be making big steps in
functionality from here on out, stuff should get better every day)
2) Use Slim-vim in alpha?  We ought to be almost functionally
complete, I'd guess 80-90% of features, with the everyday use features
all done.  There will still be bugs.

In summary:
Right now : I'd like this list of interested parties to start trying
Slim-vim & Vim+ECL, get some install documents going and start making
our project known as "something to watch"

Start of July : Make some noise on CL-Gardeners and try to get some
more testers.

End of July : Announce Alpha level code to CL-Gardeners, CLL and
anybody who will listen.  I'd like us to be first page Google hits by
end of July for "vim lisp".  Binary builds of Vim+ECL for major
platforms would be a bonus.

End of August : Go beta or V1.0, depending on quality.  This means
good code, good docs and easy install.

I'd like to hear from list members on points #1 & #2 to judge how many
interested bodies we have.  As always, comments and feedback are
welcome.

Oh, BTW - would it be useful to forward changelogs to the list as I
check stuff in?

Cheers
Brad