Daniel Brookshier's Blog: February 2005 Archive

JLogic, is a digital circuit simulator with an object-oriented design and written in Java. The project has graduated in the Global Education and Learning Community (GELC) at Java.net. JLogic has also released its verst version. I had a few questions for the project owner,Alex Lam S.L. about himself and the future of JLogic:

An interview with ,Alex Lam S.L., owner of JLogic

Tell us about yourself

I'm studying in University of Cambridge as a Natural Sciences 2nd year undergrauate.
My hobbies include problem solving in general - and more specifically,
to utilise computers so as to achieve higher efficiency and effectiveness on such tasks.

Why did you start JLogic and what is it about?

Now that's interesting. I've started this project after demonstrating the idea about how powerful are objeect-oriented language,
and how they are immediately useful on some problems - I admit that I choose electronics because I have an interest in this area of studies as well. And after a whole day of programming, I tested the resulting project and find it to be rather satisfactory -
at which point I've decided to refine it as a proper project as it is indeed rather useful as a software package!

What is the status and further plans for this project?

We are currently working in 2 main directions:
1) To develop an intuitive GUI so as to make circuit design / testing a really easy job.
2) To develop a relatively comprehensive library of components so that most people would find the tool handy.

What kind of help are you looking for?

Mostly on the GUI implementation - we desperately need some geniune ideas on it, esp if there's a way to "debug" a circuit in accord to the expected specification.

Where are you located?

The (rather tiny) City of Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, UK

Looks like a great project! In fact I wish I had something like this when I got my degree :o) I invite everyone a look and joint to help him out. Join as an observer if you are interested and email Alex directly if you can help out with the next version.

Managing membership requests

Posted by turbogeek on February 22, 2005 at 12:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

One of the nuisance tasks at Java.Net is managing user membership requests. We can reduce our burden with a little information both for these requesters and ourselves.

Almost every day I get a message from someone that wants the developer role on one of my projects. Most of the time I do not know the person and they usually don't know anything about my project than what they see on its front page. On one project I actually granted several requesters a developer role, but they have not used it.

Let's make a few observations about open source membership and roles:

• Many of us don't understand what membership and roles mean
• When in doubt, people just ask for the highest role or one that is familiar (like Developer)
• Many project owners just ignore requests because they do not know what to do with members.
• Roles granted without prerequisites are not seen as important.
• A clear process will be followed by members that really want to contribute
• A promotion of a role, granted based on hard work, is respected and used appropriately to retain its status.

The common thread here is information and a process. A lack of information causes problems and clear process helps to create a better project member. If we tell current and new members what the rules are, we reduce problems plus show a clear path to advancement in a project. What follows is a simple explanation of the roles and how to attain them. Put this on your project home page where users can't help but read it.

This is not the complete story. The more information a user has on the rules and how to work with your source code, the less you need to manage the project. Include info on how to use your application, build the code, and of great importance, how to make changes to the code. Post rules on how to submit changes to your project (I have info on that here).

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How to get approved for membership roles in this project

The following are the roles, their capabilities and the process to gain access to the role.

Observer: Read-only access to project code(CVS); can also submit issues, subscribe to email, and forums.
All observers will be granted access.

Content Developer: Read/Write access to project web content (Anything in the www directory of the CVS)
Must submit a formal request to the project owner with a resume and reasons why they should be granted access to the web pages for this project and what they plan to do as soon as the role is granted.

Developer: Read/Write access to all of project
We only grant developer access to people we feel we can trust. Trust must be earned by attaching code to issues that we have reviewed. You may submit your own issues followed by code to answer an issue. We may grant developer access on the first approved code or after a few approved submissions. This will vary depending on how important or well written the code is. Please also see our rules for code.

Project Owner: Can reconfigure project and control membership
This role will only be granted by an existing project owner's discretion. You must however have already been granted a Content or Developer role and proven yourself over time.

Any of these roles may be revoked by the project owner if you do not follow the rules of the project.

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Denying Inappropriate Requests Politely

If you do get an inaproriate request, deny it as soon as possible. Put the following in the text box and it will be sent to the members that you are denying requests to:

Your request for this role is being denied at this time. Please reapply for the 'Observer' role which is always granted.

Resources

For help on the issue tracker, go here: http://www.dev.java.net/scdocs/ProjectIssues#aboutIZ
Help for using CVS: http://www.dev.java.net/nonav/scdocs/ddCVS.html

Requesting membership/roles in an open source project: http://wiki.java.net/bin/view/Gelc/RequestingMembership
Rules/Process for code submissions: http://wiki.java.net/bin/view/Gelc/ChangingCodeInOpenSource

Here is the complete list of roles and capabilities:

Observer

• Views, but does not change project resources.
• Read-only access to most project resources.
• Read-only access to web content and source code.
• Gains submit access to tracking component.
• Subscribes and posts to project mailing lists.

Developer

• Contributes directly to project -- source code and HTML.
• Gains write access to most project resources.
• Write access to HTML, announcements utility, documents and files utility, version control, and tracking component.
• Subscribes and posts to project mailing lists.

Content Developer

• Contributes directly to project's web content (HTML).
• Gains write access to project's HTML, announcements utility, documents and files utility, and tracking component.
• Subscribes and posts to project mailing lists.

Project Owner

• Defines the project's overall mission, direction, methodology, and community make-up.
• Gains administrative access to all project functions.
• Grants members requested permissions on project.
• Administers all project mailing lists and is default moderator on all lists.
• Administers tracking component.
• Project Owner role supersedes any other roles you may hold on a project.

Controlling code in your open source project

Posted by turbogeek on February 22, 2005 at 12:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

How do you manage an open source project? Part of the problems is that most owners of projects fear uncontrolled change. The second problem is really that no one wants to change code because they are afraid of breaking an unwritten rule. The key is as simple as writing downs a few rules that both make project owners feel safe to open up their software and second for contributors to feel that they can contribute source code. Rules also give owners a way to kick off a contributor that is not following the rules.

The following rules and process can be copied to your project's home page. They represent what we have seen on several successful open source projects. These rules can be modified to suit your needs, however these have been proven time and again. If you are a member of a project which has no code submission process or rules, please email a link to this blog to your project owner.

So, without further ado are the rules:

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Code Submission Rules
This is an open project so anyone that is a member can submit an issue and/or attach code to an issue to resolve an issue. However, not all code or issues will be accepted by the owners and existing developers of this project. Issues, code, comments, and documentation must be well written and pass a review by at least one of the developers and may be vetoed by any developer or the project owners. In addition we have the following code submission process. Failure to follow the process may cause you to be removed from the project.

Code Submission Process
1) All changes must be in reference to a issue to resolve a Defect, Patch, Task, Feature, or Enhancement.
2) All code to resolve the issue must be attached to an issue for review prior to committing to the database
3) All changes must be reviewed by at least one other member with developer status or the project owner
4) Any reviewed code that receives a negative review or request for modification cannot be committed until either a discussion of the code and issue reverses the negative review or that the code is modified to remove the objection. You may also be required to include comments, changes to documentation, and unit tests before code can be committed.
5) When code is posted to CVS, in the submission comment you must reference a short description of the issue, short description about the change, the issue number, and the developer ID of the reviewer.

Note: All members can submit issues and attach code modifications to the issues for review. If code is reviewed positively, you may be granted a developer role at that time or someone will post the code to CVS for you.

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Sun Education and Research Conference

Posted by turbogeek on February 15, 2005 at 11:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Sun Education and Research Conference is getting started in San Francisco this week. Why is this important? The Global Education and Learning Community (GELC) is playing a part to enhance education worldwide and we are part of a focus at the conference. Most of us are not at this conference, so we need to rally ourselves within the virtual space of the java.net community. We all benefit from a better educated world. Please take the time to join the main member area for the GELC (join as an observer) and then join the GELC Discussion Forum. Let us know what you think about education and what needs to be done here at java.net to help. Also, if you own a project under the GELC, please join the Project Owner Forum.

At the GELC is not just about Java education. Yes, we excel with great Java tutoring projects (Girl's Java Cafe' and New2Java are great examples ), but that's just a small part. We have many projects to further education in general from grade school to university. We have software and information from learning tools to managing school districts and universities and education via the web.We also support research in many areas from grid-based biochemistry to scholarly research and student projects. Because we are an open forum we are also becoming a clearing house for components, tools, and even educational content.

Education is not just formal classwork that stops after you get a diploma. The best people seek to educate themselves throughout their lives. Our aim in the GELC is to also support life long learners and teachers.

A community not just about projects, it is also about its members. Please participate. Start by introducing yourself in the main forums or a project that interests you. The best opportunities to teach or learn are started by a simple hello.

Finally we need your help to get the word out. Tell everyone you know about java.net and the GELC. Tell your teachers, your friends, relitives, mentors, and even a few strangers. This is an important resource that everyone should know about and use. It's time to make a difference and make the world a better place by supporting global education and life long learning!

Everyone should be talking. No matter what project or community you are in at java.net, please say hello on you main discussion list or forums. Let everyone know who you are and how you can help. If you are a student, teacher, or just a member of society, we all have ways to help each other learn new skills. Call it mentoring or just helping out, the more we do, the better off we all are for it.

New projects in the Global Education and Learning Community for February 15th, 2005

Posted by turbogeek on February 15, 2005 at 09:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

More projects added to the GELC. For mid-February of 2005 we have the following new projects:

Octopus - Time-sheet manager for schools with a rules approach
ini4j - An .ini file tool
java4web - Frameworks for web development
jedi - Development of Java courseware and curriculum for Computer Science
post - Terminal to keep track of sales logs and print receipts

The Global Education and Learning Community welcomes these great projects. Take a look at theprojects and join them if you can help them out. Here are the details of each of the projects:

Octopus
School Timesheet Manager Rules Based
Owner: lfranchi@dev.java.net

This project will use new tecnologies and development process metodologies for learning.

The project will allow the build of a school timesheet with n teachers and n classes. The system will Rule Based looking the n possibles facts to resolve. The initial idea since project is, finally, to form a group of studies with the purpose of the construction of a product that can be used in real applications, of great usability and necessity of the business based on rules.

ini4j Java API for Windows .ini style files.
Owner: szkiba@dev.java.net

Project ini4j is a simple Java API for handling configuration files in Windows .ini format. Additionally, the library includes Java Preferences API implementation based on the .ini file.

java4web
Java Technologies For Web Applications
Owner: res_n_dev@dev.java.net

Java4Web will be focused on the use of different frameworks and tools for web applications development

jedi
Java Education & Development Initiative

Owners: itogruet@dev.java.net, jppetines@dev.java.net, rferia@dev.java.net

Development of Java courseware and curriculum for Computer Science and Information Technology education.

post

Project to design a POST terminal for sales log and receipts
image@dev.java.net

To design a POST terminal to keep track of sales logs and print receipts for each transactions.

New Projects in Global Education and Learning Community

Posted by turbogeek on February 10, 2005 at 04:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The Global Education and Learning Community welcomes more great projects. This time we have big integer software, a digital logic simulator, ad a problem-based learning simulator.

Take a look at these great new projects and join them if you can help them out.

BigAI

owner: jonelo@dev.java.net

A free program for calculating really big numbers

BigAl is a command line tool, it is written entirely in Java. With BigAl, you can calculate really BIG numbers, the only restriction is the power of your computer. Not only basic calculations are supported but also special functions like factorial, fibonacci, lucas-sequence, periods, fraction reducing, binomial coefficient calculation and many more.

pibel

owner: ciler@dev.java.net

Pibel - a powerful Learning Management System using Problem-based learning (PBL)

Problem-based learning (PBL) has recently been introduced into the curricula of many universities and medical schools throughout the world. It is an active way of learning in which students are initially presented with a problem. Then, it is the realization of what they know and don't know about the problem that drives the learning process.

In the PBL setting, students are usually divided into small groups and presented with the problem in a progressive way. This method demands, and at the same time has the potential to develop, problem solving skills and learner independence.

jlogic

owner: alexlamsl@java

Pure object-oriented design for digital circuit simulation

This project is a circuit simulator using object oriented techniques, The first multi-threaded implementation released and tested for moderately large circuits. Although there could be rooms for improvements on efficiency, the package should be readily useful for everyone.

The single threaded version is up and running - feel free to use / test them out. Current available components:
Buffer, NOT, AND, NAND, OR, NOR, XOR, XNOR, D-Latch, D-Flip-Flop. Any other recommended components would be appreciated.

pereira-costa
owner: jackganzha@dev.java.net

This another Brazilian project and is used to publish the Pernambuco's Annals

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