• Anafroj@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      21
      ·
      edit-2
      1 year ago

      That’s the name we use to designate software like GitHub, GitLab and similar, which provide repositories hosting and tooling like issue trackers. It’s supposed to be named like that because of SourceForge, the oldest of such tools, although I didn’t hear the term “forge” before the last 5 years or so, long after SourceForge demise, so I imagine there is a bit of nostalgia in this name (not sure who is nostalgic of SourceForge, though 😂). The wikipedia page : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forge_(software)

      • interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        1 year ago

        So, a web front end to git ? Why do you say SourceForge is dead, there are many open source projects on SourceForge, are they at risk of disappearing ?

        • pound_heap@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          1 year ago

          It’s not just a web front end. I would call it a software development lifecycle service. On top of repos for source code management there could be a bunch of services: Issue tracker, CI/CD automation, static pages hosting, flexible permissions system, even pull requests - all this is not Git.

          Forge is a nice and easy name, but not sure if many people realize what it means or recognize that meaning.

        • Anafroj@sh.itjust.works
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          “Git hosting” would be more appropriate. Unless that by frontend, you mean specifically web frontend, but that would be weird, because forges also provide the web backend part.

          Sourceforge was the biggest FOSS host in the 2000s, before GitHub (mainly because there was not much centralization to begin with). That train is long gone. :) Sure, the name and website Sourceforge still exist. Myspace, Digg and Yahoo do too. They are basically web ghosts, only an echo of what they once were.