learning with foss

8/9/2019 Learning With FOSS

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Learning withLearning with

Free & Open SourceFree & Open SourceSoftwareSoftware

Clif Kussmaul, PhD


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OverviewOverview

I. Introductions

II. FOSS

III.Learning with FOSS

IV. Conclusions


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Who is Clif Kussmaul?Who is Clif Kussmaul?

y Fulbright-Nehru Scholar, Univ. of Kerala

Dept. of CS & Centre for Bioinformatics

y Associate Professor, Muhlenberg College

y CTO, Elegance Technologies, Inc.

y interests: software engineering

collaboration & knowledge mgmt

FOSS: wikis, CMS, LMS, SE toolsy other: cognitive neuroscience, music

y married to Lane, with Ben (10) and Jin Yi (5)


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See theWorld!See theWorld!

yWHY? meet interesting people

see other countries & cultures

learn languages & customs develop new insights on

yourself & your culture

y HOW? employment

exchange programs

grants


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US IndiaUS India

EducationalEducationalFoundationFoundation

yjoint program of Indian and US governments

y grants for students, teachers, researchers, ...

~100 Indians study in the US each year

~100 Americans study in India each year

y Fulbright House, 12 Hailey Rd,New Delhi 110001 INDIA

y http://www.usief.org.in


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Who are you?Who are you?

y faculty, student, staff, other?

y CET, other?

y

experience with FOSS use, contribute?


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II. Free & Open Source SoftwareII. Free & Open Source Software

y software with source code that isavailable to read & modify

y many licenses & other variations

y free as in free speech, not free beer


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FOSS is used in many domains.FOSS is used in many domains.

y GNU project: emacs, gcc, flex/bison,

Linux

y Eclipse, CVS/SVN

y Apache, mysql/postgres

many LAMP tools: BBS, blog, CMS, wiki

y Firefox, Thunderbird, OpenOffice, GIMP

y Audacity, FreeMind, OpenWorkbench


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FOSS communities have structure.FOSS communities have structure.

1. Core Team

2. Developers

3. Testers & Patchers4. Bug Reporters &

Feature Requesters

5. Silent Users &

Passive Observers90%

9%

0.9%

0.09%

0.009%


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Most people climb the mountain.Most people climb the mountain.

1. ???

2. ERPSS, TWiki

3. Drupal,MoinMoin

4. Moodle, Trac,

SubjectsPlus

5. Apache, Eclipse,FreeMind, Linux,

OpenWorkbench,

OpenOffice,


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Example: ERPSSExample: ERPSS

y Event Related Potential Software System

brain wave (EEG) processing & analysis

developed at UCSD in 70s and 80s

y installed, used, & maintained; minor changes

y developed software to convert

raw data to ERPSS format

y developed software to convertERPSS graphics to Adobe PostScript

y still getting questions 20 years later


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Example: TWikiExample: TWiki

y installed & experimented as part ofHP Technology for Teaching grant

y used for entrepreneurship education

y developed or significantly enhancedBibliographyPlugin,

CommonHeaderFooterPlugin,

improved formatting of search resultsy consulting for government, industry,

& not-for-profit organizations


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III. Learning with FOSSIII. Learning with FOSS

y FOSS has deep roots in academia.

Culture of sharing information & knowledge.

Budget limitations.

y FOSS can & should have a deeper role,especially in CS/SE education.


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FOSS is both useful & interesting.FOSS is both useful & interesting.

y (depending on the project, of course)

y useful: low cost, flexibility, & quality

y interesting:

code & docs can be inspected & improved

defect & enhancement reports are available

varied stakeholder community

development history is archived

contributions are welcome

y i.e. most characteristics of real software


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FOSS across the curriculum!FOSS across the curriculum!

y Computer Science I & II

y Software Engineering

y Capstone Seminar


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Computer Science I & IIComputer Science I & II

y USE FOSS: Linux, Moodle, Eclipse

y free means more than open source

point out opportunities to change code

y read & refactor code, not write-only

e.g. stub code, driver programs, unit tests


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Software EngineeringSoftware Engineering

y 2nd year course

y technical & non-technical threads

teams, project management, entrepreneurship

Stage Gate model to develop concepts

y USEFOSS: SVN, Trac, FreeMind,

OpenWorkbench, phpxref, etc.

y assignments to STUDYand ADD


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Assignment: Analysis 1Assignment: Analysis 1

1. Choose a FOSS project (from short list).

2. Download complete source code.

3. Choose one (dynamic) page.

4. Save the HTML page source to a text file.

5. STUDY & learn how the page is generated.

6. Document in written overview & diagrams.

7. Review with the instructor.


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Assignment: Analysis 2Assignment: Analysis 2

1. Create a list of proposed features,with difficulty & interest ratings.

2. Choose one feature to investigate.

3. STUDY the code to understand howto implement the proposed feature,

& make a plan.


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Assignments: DevelopmentAssignments: Development

ADD some simple features,then BUILDmore interesting

capabilities


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ExamplesExamples

y phpBB bulletin board

minor navigational enhancements

y Moodle course management system

enhanced navigation

due date and submission rate display

configurable search block


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Capstone ProjectsCapstone Projects

y 3rd & 4th year course

y Reading & discussion of advanced topics

y Significant software project (solo or team)

FOSS work BUILD or LEVERAGE

academic research

standalone software (rarely)


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Project FeedbackProject Feedback

y I got some good exposure to open source communitiesand the ways that they work. the contrast between

[two different] communities allowed me to see just howimportant that momentum is for other developers.

y This acted as a way to teach me how to workon a project for a customer. [We] were thecontractors and the Librarians were our clients.

We were consultants, providing progress reports

and working on new acceptable features, tryingto meet the clients needs. [We] were lucky to havea way to experience working with people who hada vested interested in our production.


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ExamplesExamples

y AudibleAlerts plugin for Pidgin (IM client)using eSpeak (speech synthesizer)

y Extensions to let Drupal (CMS) exchange

product info & orders with OpenBravo (ERP)y Enhanced query capabilities for Drupal Views,

to support a tutor management system

y Multiple enhancements to SubjectsPlus

(library subject guide)


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IV. ConclusionsIV. Conclusions

y FOSS offers more than free software

y students & teachers can:

study real code

join professional communities

solve problems that matter to other people

learn real software development first hand

y start gradually & climb the mountain


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Some friendly FOSS projectsSome friendly FOSS projects

y content mgmt systems:

Drupal, Joomla

y wiki:

FOSwiki, TWiki, Moin, MediaWiki

y course mgmt system: Moodle

y project mgmt systems: Trac, Bugzilla


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Questions & DiscussionQuestions & Discussion

Clif Kussmaul [email protected]

learning with foss

Documents