open standards, open source alun butler kevin mcmanus

Open Standards, Open Source

Alun Butler

Kevin McManus

A.R.B. K.M. 23/01/2007 2


the University of Greenwich

What we’re going to look at today• Open Standards

• Some examples• The meaning of a standard• What you gain• What you lose

• Open Source• How it all began & where we are today• What is Open Source?• Who owns Opens Source?• Can Open Source stop you know who?• Weaknesses of Open Source

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Quick Quiz

• These initial are all standards bodies. Identify what the initials stand for and what standards they control

1. ISO 2. ECMA 3. ANSI 4. IETF5. IEEE6. W3C7. OASIS 8. OMG9. BSI10.IEC

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Standards Bodies• ISO = International Organisation for Standardization

• Includes Open Systems Interconnection (OSI )• remember the 7 Layer OSI reference model

• ECMA = European Computer Manufacturers Association

• ECMAScript (JavaScript)

• C# Language Specification

• ANSI = American National Standards Institute

• ASCII, F77, C++, SQL

• IETF = The Internet Engineering Task Force

• Network protocols such as HTTP & IP (v1 & 2)

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Standards Bodies

• IEEE = Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers • many including Software Engineering Standards

• W3C = The World Wide Web Consortium• XML, HTML, DOM, RDF, etc.

• OASIS = Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards)• ebXML, UDDI

• OMG = Object Management Group• CORBA, UML

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Standards Bodies

• BSI = British Standards Institute• BS ISO/IEC 19770-1:2006

• Information technology - Software asset management

• BS ISO/IEC 90003:2004• Software engineering. Guidelines for the application of

ISO 9001:2000 to computer software

• IEC = International Electrotechnical Commission

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(pseudo) Open

• openGL - Silicon Graphics• PVM - Netlib, Oak Ridge• MPI - Argonne• openMP - Lawrence Livermore• Motif - The Open Group• Openlook - Sun & AT&T• Ada - DoD• Java - Sun

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What is a standard?• Does a Standard have to be written down?• Does it need a formal specification?• Can it just be an interface?

• e.g. JMS

• Should a standard indicate • What?• Why?• How?

• What is the most important standard?• A de facto standard?• Is Windows a de facto standard?

http://www.boxesandarrows.com/archives/examining_the_role_of_de_facto_standards_on_the_web.php

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An example

• OSI Basic Reference Model

• A Standard?

Physical

Data Link

Network

Transport

Session

Presentation

Application

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Physical

Data Link

Network

Transport

Session

Presentation

Application EmailWeb

ApplicationsFile Transfer

DirectoryServices

Host Sessions

NetworkManagement

POP/SMTP DNS SNMP

POP/25 80/443 20/21 53 23 161/162

TCP UDP

IPV4 IPV6

SLIP,PPP 802.2 SNAP Ethernet II

CAT 1-5CoaxialCables

Cat 1 ATMADSL

HTTP(S) FTP Telnet

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Defining a Standard the IEEE way

• Initiate a Project

• Working Group Development

• Writing the Draft

• Balloting the Draft

• Final Approved

• Publishing Standard

• Reaffirming the Standard

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The IETF Way• IETF motto “rough consensus and running code”• Working Groups• Proposal require around 90% consensus to be taken forward• Request For Comment

• A Request for Comments (RFC) is a formal document from the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) that is the result of committee drafting and subsequent review by interested parties.

• Some RFCs are informal in nature (e.g. 2795)• Internet standards, the final version of the RFC becomes the

standard and no further comments or changes are permitted. • Change occurs through subsequent RFCs• Authors retain rights (but IETF must be able to publish freely)

http://www.ietf.org/rfc.html

Scott Bradner, The IETF in Open Sources Ed. Chris Dibona, O’Reilly (1999)

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Open Standards1. Availability

Open Standards are available for all to read and implement.

2. Maximize End-User ChoiceOpen Standards create a fair, competitive market for implementations of the standard. They do not lock the customer in to a particular vendor or group.

3. No RoyaltyOpen Standards are free for all to implement, with no royalty or fee. Certification of compliance by the standards organization may involve a fee.

4. No DiscriminationOpen Standards and the organizations that administer them do not favor one implementor over another for any reason other than the technical standards compliance of a vendor's implementation. Certification organizations must provide a path for low and zero-cost implementations to be validated, but may also provide enhanced certification services.

http://perens.com/OpenStandards/Definition.html

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Open Standards5. Extension or Subset

Implementations of Open Standards may be extended, or offered in subset form. However, certification organizations may decline to certify subset implementations, and may place requirements upon extensions (see Predatory Practices).

6. Predatory PracticesOpen Standards may employ license terms that protect against subversion of the standard by embrace-and-extend tactics. The licenses attached to the standard may require the publication of reference information for extensions, and a license for all others to create, distribute, and sell software that is compatible with the extensions. An Open Standard may not othewise prohibit extensions.

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What you get

• You know exactly what to do

• So does everyone else

• Your clients and your servers become 1-1 implementations instead of

* *to

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But

• Implementers rarely implement complete and whole standards• SQL (Superset of the subset)• XML Spy• TIFF• HTML

• Implementers tend to add extensions (and that extension tends to be the bit you want).

• Written standards are by their nature out of date

• Written standards take a long time to produce

• Written standards are inflexible

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Open Source

• Like standards most references on open source tend to be historical in nature

• People get excited about the GNU project standing for the recursive

GNU’s Not Unix• If you want that spin go to Kevin’s WAT site

http://staffweb.cms.gre.ac.uk/~k.mcmanus/web/opensource/

scroll down to Watch This Documentary

It is well worth it!

(and listen to the podcast and read the article)

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Open Source • Open source manifesto

• Copyleft• Richard Stallman 1985

• Free as in speech – not free as in free beer• Free Software Foundation• FOSS

• Software developers have a duty to the world and to each other to tell the truth• good code expresses the truth

“Scientists talk of replication, Open Source Programmers talk of debugging. Where Scientists talk of discovering, Open Source

programmers talk of creating”

Chris DiBona

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Open Source

• Allows (encourages) code inspection

• No code ownership

• Focuses output on the needs of users

• Requires good documentation• Because a lot of people use your product• How is a significant amount of Open Source code

documented now?• Tests!

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But…

• What if it breaks?• You can fix it yourself• You can wait for a sea of other developers to fix it• You can ask a sea of other developers to fix it - ping

• It won’t be architected – It won’t be designed• If it is too complicated to understand people won’t use it• Or they’ll use the version they do understand• The pressure to improve the internal architecture on these

projects is intense because…• Reputations are at stake. • Public reputations

• Usually Open Source code is design as a component• You’re not expected to use it stand alone

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But…

• But surely having the source open is less secure?

• But if it is not open source do you trust the code?

• It may be that the perceived vulnerability of software is more about the motivation of attackers than any actual weakness in the code

• System security is only as good as the sysops can make it

http://www.dwheeler.com/secure-programs/Secure-Programs-HOWTO/open-source-security.html

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But…

• I am risk averse

• I need guarantees

• When it goes pear shaped whose desk does the buck land on?

• Who can I sue?

• If you want a guarantee you will need to pay for it

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Cathedral and the Bazaar

Eric Raymond, The Cathedral & the Bazaar, O’Reilly (2001)

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The Design Imperative

• The people who code open source tend to be above average coders

• They are designing in public view• They are designing for other people (peers)• They are self motivated• They like to fix stuff• The importance of having users

• users are testers• short release cycles

• release early, release often

• Diverse backgrounds breed original perspectives

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Breaking Brooks’ Law

0

20

40

60

80

100

120

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Performance

Complexity

Proportional to N2 (communication paths)

"Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later."

Fred Brooks,The Mythical Man-Month (1975)

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Breaking Brooks’ Law

• Memes• “Customs, transmitted by imitation and example”

Richard Dawkins, The Selfish Gene, OUP (1989)

• Community Driven• Built in communication channels• Peer driven evaluation• User driven requirements• Motivated developers• Focussed on reusable components

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How to be a Hacker

• The world is full of fascinating problems waiting to be solved

• Nobody should ever have to solve the same problem twice

• Freedom is good • Attitude is no substitute for competence (no posing

please) and stuff your fancy diagram• Learn how to program (by looking at good code)• Run, use and adapt open source code• Start an open source project

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How to be a Hacker

• Larry Wall (the godfather of Perl) gives the three great virtues of a programmer

• laziness• a lack of inclination to exert oneself unnecessarily

• impatience• choose the quickest path to achieve a result

• hubris• arrogant pride

• lookit me mummy

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Really how to be a Hacker• Have a need and no money

• Have a salary and too much time

• Have your bosses have a need and fulfil it cheaply

• Require a product that will continue to be supported

• Imagine a product (you need) that could never defend it’s market share without help

• Imagine a product (you need) that could never obtain market share without being free

• Live on the training

• Live on the consultancy

• Live on your enhanced reputation

• Dual Licence - e.g. Perl, Mono, MySQL, Qt

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Open Source Projects

• Academic Projects• BSD, Linux, Xorg, PostgreSQL, BIND,

Sendmail• Foundation Projects

MySQL, Apache, Mozilla• Middleware Projects

• Globus, Tomcat, JBoss, PHP• Niche Projects

• Audacity, GIMP, Ant, Eclipse• User friendly interfaces

• Gnome, KDE, Project Looking Glass

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Quality Code

"We prefer to have our spacecraft software fail at compile time rather than in space" Neal Gafter Sun Microsystems

http://developer.java.sun.com/developer/community/chat/JavaLive/2003/jl0729.html

• Open Source in Space• Science Activity Planner

“overall [the quality of open source] was far better than.. .. commercial components”

• Look for

• Maturity• Longevity• Activity

Jeffrey S Norris, JPL, Mission Critical Development with Open Source Software -January IEEE Software 2004

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Quality Code

• Professional approved• Stephane Lussier (a self proclaimed über

professional) was surprised to discover• OS coders were not kids

• The WINE (Wine Is Not an Emulator) team initially rejected their patches

• Code reviews are a good way of improving software

• Rejected code is a positive feedback mechanism

Stephane Lussier, New Tricks: How Open Source Changed the Way My Team Works - January IEEE Software 2004

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The Open Source Definition1. Free Redistribution • The license may not restrict any party from selling or giving away the software • This means that you can make any number of copies of the software, and sell or give them

away, and you don't have to pay anyone for that privilege. . 2. Source Code • The program must include source code, and must allow distribution in source code as well as

compiled form.

3. Derived Works • The license must allow modifications and derived works, and must allow them to be distributed

under the same terms as the license of the original software.• 4. Integrity of The Author's Source Code. • The license may restrict source-code from being distributed in modified form only if the license

allows the distribution of "patch files" with the source code for the purpose of modifying the program at build time.

• The license must explicitly permit distribution of software built from modified source code. The license may require derived works to carry a different name or version number from the original software.

5. No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups. • The license must not discriminate against any person or group of persons.

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The Open Source Definition6. No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor. • The license must not restrict anyone from making use of the program in a specific field of

endeavor. For example, it may not restrict the program from being used in a business, or from being used for genetic research.

7. Distribution of License. • The rights attached to the program must apply to all to whom the program is redistributed without

the need for execution of an additional license by those parties.

8. License Must Not Be Specific to a Product. • The rights attached to the program must not depend on the program's being part of a particular

software distribution. If the program is extracted from that distribution and used or distributed within the terms of the program's license, all parties to whom the program is redistributed should have the same rights as those that are granted in conjunction with the original software distribution.

9. License Must Not Contaminate Other Software. • The license must not place restrictions on other software that is distributed along with the

licensed software. For example, the license must not insist that all other programs distributed on the same medium must be open-source software.

10. Example Licenses. • The GNU GPL, BSD, X Consortium, and Artistic licenses are examples of licenses that we

consider conformant to the Open Source Definition. So is the MPL.

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Some licenses

• GPL (GNU General Public Licence)• enhancements, derivatives and even code incorporating GPL

code must be released as open source • viral• protects through publicity (Cyngnus)

• LGPL (GNU Lesser General Public License )• I’ve also seen it referred to as Library GPL (which it what it is)

• if you use it as a library – you don’t need to Open Source

• BSD (Berkeley Software Distribution) style copyright (the Apache license follows this model)• here is the code, do what you like with it, we don’t care, just give

us credit if you try to sell it• and don't muck about with our copyright notice

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Some revealing quotes

• MySQL“The software from MySQL AB that you can download from the pages listed below, is licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL) and is provided "as is" and is without any warranty. You need to purchase commercial non-GPL MySQL licenses:

If you distribute MySQL Software with your non open source software,

If you want warranty from MySQL AB for the MySQL software,

If you want to support MySQL development.”

• PostgreSQL“Its been almost 4 weeks since PostgreSQL 7.4 was released, and, as with all new releases, several bugs have been identified as administrators migrate their production databases up from older releases”

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Who Owns Open Source?

• JBoss

• MySQL

• Eclipse

• Jakarta

• Ant

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So what is this really all about?

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The Race

• Increasingly the battle for open is for the survival of an alternative

• Why else would IBM invest so heavily in Eclipse?

“In the second Halloween document, a Microsoft staffer writes about the exhilarating feeling that he could easily change part of the Linux system to do exactly what he wanted, and that it was so much

easier to do this on Linux than it was for a Microsoft employee to change NT !”

Bruce Perens

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Literal Open Source

• Java• .NET framework is largely open source

• Shared Source Common Language Infrastructure 1.0 Release

http://tinyurl.com/9onm

• Is it more important to be Open (visible) or Open (free speech) or Open (free beer)?

• Where does Mono stand http://www.go-mono.com/

• Dot Netters develop the Open Source habit• Nant• NUnit• NGen (native images from a managed assembly)

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The Problems• Quick releases• Turbulent architecture• Low rent focus

• MySQL transactions

• Scripts not Windows• User facing disaster

• Munich

• Save £10 on purchase, spend £10 on productivity

• Given with the advantages of FOSS the above may simply be sour grapes

http://www.wired.com/news/infostructure/0,1377,62236,00.html?tw=wn_tophead_6

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A New Hope

Nir Kshetri, 'Economics of Linux Adoption in Developing Countries' IEEE Software (2004)

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Resources - Standards

Standards Bodies• ISO (International Organisation for Standardization)

http://www.iso.ch/•Includes Open Systems Interconnection (OSI ) – •Remember the 7 Layer OSI reference model

• ECMA (European Computer Manufacturers Association)•JavaScripthttp://www.ecma-international.org/publications/files/ECMA-ST/Ecma-262.pdf

•C# Language Specificationhttp://www.ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-334.htm

• ANSI (American National Standards Institute)http://web.ansi.org/

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Resources - Standards• Standards bodies

• IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers)http://standards.ieee.org/

• The World Wide Web Consortiumhttp://www.w3c.org

• The Internet Engineering Task Forcehttp://www.ietf.org/

• Object management Grouphttp://www.omg.org/uml/

• OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards)

http://www.oasis-open.org/home/index.php

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Resources - Open Source

• Open Source Initiative http://www.opensource.org

• home of the Open Source Definitionhttp://www.opensource.org/docs/

definition_plain.html

• Free Software Foundation • home of Gnu

http://www.fsf.org/

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Resources - The Big Guns• Linux

http://www.linux.org/

http://www.osdl.org/

• Apache• (Webserver, Tomcat, Ant, Coocoon, Struts…)

http://www.apache.org/

http://jakarta.apache.org/

• MySQLhttp://www.mysql.com/

• PostgreSQLhttp://www.postgresql.org/

• Perlhttp://perl.apache.org/

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Resources - The Vendors

• IBMhttp://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/opensource

• Sunhttp://www.sunsource.net/

http://www.opensolaris.org/os/

• HPhttp://opensource.hp.com/

• Novellhttp://www.novell.com/offices/opensourcecenter.htm

• M$http://www.microsoft.com/resources/sharedsource/default.mspx

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Resources - Up and coming• JBoss (J2EE application server)

http://www.jboss.org/index.html

• Jabber (point to point XML comms)

http://www.jabber.org/

• Eclipse (IDE – Oops! Application framework)

http://www.eclipse.org/

• Zope (CMS & Portal)

http://www.zope.org/

• Gump (Integration management & versioning)

http://jakarta.apache.org/gump/

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ResourcesFind Open Source Software or create Open Source projects

http://sourceforge.net/http://freshmeat.net/http://www.tigris.org/

A notional C# example – an OS environment for C# and (yuk) VB.Net

http://www.icsharpcode.net/OpenSource/SD/

And don’t forget - O'Reilly

http://tim.oreilly.com/opensource/index.cspOpen Sources: Voices from the Open Source Revolution

http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/opensources/book/toc.htmlThe Cathedral and the Bazaar, by Eric S. Raymond

http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/

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What we looked at today

• Open Standards• Some examples• The meaning of a standard• What you gain• What you lose

• Open Source• How it all began & where we are today• What is Open Source?• Who owns Opens Source?• Can Open Source stop you know who?• Weaknesses of Open Source

open standards, open source alun butler kevin mcmanus

Documents

open standards

open group openlook

uml slide

important standard

application of iso

computer software iec

institute of electrical

layer osi reference