First Initiative

A project to implement BlueAbyss. The implementation is separated into 5 distinct phases:

Objects, a UniversalCatalog
Communities
Spaces, an ObjectBrowser
Graphs

Someone has donated a license of DolphinSmalltalk 4.0 Standard (if anyone has a license for 5.0 or Professional they're willing to donate, I'd be grateful) and I bought a license for ST3D, so development can proceed. Or at least, it could if only the 3D editor that comes with the ST3D engine were worth more than utter shite. So the next step is the acquisition of a copy of 3D Studio Max, unless someone is willing to donate time and expertise to draw a few piddling models for me.

Work on the first phase officially began on the 12th of December 2003. Initial release was planned for the 1st of January 2005. Obviously, it's been delayed, and is expected to be delayed 1 year, to 2006 instead of 2005. On the other hand, phase 2 (the object browser) is proceeding on schedule and is expected to make up for any delays in phase 1.

Original plan:

universal catalog: 1 year, release 2005
object browser: 1 year, release 2006

Updated plan:

universal catalog: 2 years, release 2006
object browser: concurrent, release 2006

Hmmm, this is from my homepage from a couple weeks back:

Yeah, well, I got it working to the point where I needed some kind of UI for it. Then came the big decision; build one with crappy MVC, or create an ObjectBrowser from scratch. Unsurprisingly enough, I decided on the latter. I've done most of the design and am at the stage of evaluating 3D engines.

[Short, venom-spitting exchange snipped. Summary: RK upset with lack of support vs. AnonymousCoward who points out RK hoarding everything from content to credit.]

As of July 2009, web searches for 'kulisz' or 'RK' in combination with 'blue abyss', 'universal catalog', 'object browser', 'first initiative' and so on turn up only this PortlandPatternRepository WikiWiki. RK at one point owned 'universalcatalog.com', but it has since changed hands. It seems RichardKulisz has killed the project due to lack of community support. Or, at least, that's his public reason. Richard's original timetable (a year or two each for a database product and an object browser, to be implemented concurrently) was ludicrous. There may also be a reaction to his being banned from WikiWiki in 2006 involved.

Still, it is unfortunate. BlueAbyss was a realistic endeavor (modulo the timetable and anticipated support), and a promising one.

I contacted RK. The BlueAbyss project has been renamed "Suberian". RK indicates he'll be getting started on it any day now... just as soon as he's feeling motivated enough.