Guys…
All mature open-source Java libraries I’ve seen to date had one noticable thing: a schedule!
I believe that Xith3d is floating in limbo because we have no public schedule as to where we stand today, when we plan on releasing the next 2-3 releases and what elements are scheduled for each release.
Without a schedule you cannot prioritize. And without priotization, you will get nowhere fast… like has been the case for the past few months.
Just my 2 cents…
Gili
where not doing to badly 
Before getting a schedule you’d need people ready to do the work once its scheudled. Really hard to work how long somethings going to take until you know how much time people have to spend on it…
A worrying and growing trend is OS at the moment seems to be users who don’t contribute as they go… odd.
Kev
The issue, as far as I see it, has absolutely nothing to do with how long it takes to implement a feature. What I am saying is that we should have a schedule for what will happen in each version release. We don’t actually need to estimate when that release will come out, but at least we will prioritize what to do in each release and work toward a common goal.
Gili
Oh, in that case I absolutely stand corrected (well, strictly I’m sitting).
Kev
Well, Xith3D is getting to the stage where one can concentrate on using it rather than developing it, at least this is my case. When someone needs something, they add it or lobby to have it added. Most of the time the vacuum is filled sooner or later.
The number one item on my hit list is the Xith UI. I would love to see something that is usable and fast at least in a public beta ASAP.
Will.
Most developers in the open source community share a common view of good engineering practice that works for such globally distributed teams. The truth is that the processes almost all projects use for managing the direction and quality of their code is pretty similar. That process has evolved in the last few years greatly and all the big successfully projects have embraced it.
Xith3D is currently not doing a whole bundle of these “good practice” things, the schedule being one of them. How long will it be before we see an actual release? What is a developer today actually supposed to use to develop on, a snapshot from CVS or the latest checkout code? He’s looking for an API, not to work on the Xith3D project itself! He needs a released, tested and supported binary. These things are important for a project so that new contributors know what is needed and users of the API know whether they need to port their code on to the new platform to use new features.
Without these normal things developers will have find another project that uses good practice as it feels natural and they have an idea of what to expect in the future.
Xith3D is very promising and pretty cool project, but has the feel of being hacked together. Schedules, builds, automated regression tests, release notes all give developers a sense of warmth that this isn’t just another project doomed to failure but rather a project set up for success and the long haul. Good games will take more than a year to write, consider that audience where they don’t want the API changing every day.