JBoss Rules...Well, not quite!

I have been attempting to work with JBoss Rules (nee Drools) and have mostly met with frustration.

With the acquisition by JBoss, the Drools site (www.drools.org) pointed me to JBoss for v3 of the API. In fact, today, I can't even get to drools.org any more. Now cleverly annointed "JBoss Rules", I downloaded the version 3.0 RC2 of both the binary and the IDE.

No joy, however (several errors reading the DRL files). Tried various alternatives including recommendations on their mailing list by some of the project's leading lights that one use Eclipse 3.2 M6 and not 3.2 M5 as indicated by their docs. Still no joy.

Finally, I decided to download the source and built v3.0. Pay dirt! Actually, you don't need Eclipse 3.2 M6 -- the docs were right it works just fine on M5.

On the subject of docs, they are mere shells. The original Drools site used to have a plethora of documented examples, and usage documentation. Not any more. What is the syntax for the new DRL files? I see "duration" is a long, but what is it? About the DSLs? Why get rid of perfectly good documentation of the concepts?

OK, since the docs aren't there yet, I decided to join the mailing list. Again, I followed the instructions and tried to subscribe by sending email to user-subscribe@drools.codehaus.org. Again, no joy. I got an automated response that read

Hi. This is the qmail-send program at codehaus.org.
I'm afraid I wasn't able to deliver your message to the following addresses.
This is a permanent error; I've given up. Sorry it didn't work out.

:
Sorry, no mailbox here by that name.

So, what next?

JBoss Rules...I don't think so.