Status update for all. Please populate your README with these:
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What are you working on?
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What’s your implementation language?
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What have you done so far? Did you meet your expectations for this week yet?
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What do you hope to accomplish by next week? How? (Who’s doing what, if this is a team?)
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What do you need to move forward?
Copyleft: GPL (strong), LGPL (weak), Mozilla Public licence (weak) Permissive: BSD, MIT, XFree86, Apache
Originally, all software was "open source". Proprietary software had to be invented. The term "open source" as used today came to being in 1998.
He got a $1 million dollar MacArthur Foundation Genius grant.
He helped write:
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GNU General Public License
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He’s got microkernels in his beard. A HURD if you will.
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Disgusting person.
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GCC, GDB, emacs
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Nothing to do with MIT license, Ubuntu or Debian
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GNU project (and all the ancillary software)
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He wrote the Cathedral and The Bazaar
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He is Microsoft’s worst nightmare
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He said to Jim Allchin (who later said: Linux is a cancer), "I am your worst nightmare."
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He wrote the Debian Free Software Guidelines
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That in turn, became the Open Source Definition.
He helped write:
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g++
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He founded Cygnus, which Red Hat acquired, and he became wealthy.
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git
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Is a billionaire. He ran CA called Thawte (which Verisign bought $$$).
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He’s been to space.
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Founded Ubuntu and Canonical
Github, Sourceforge, Bitbucket, Gitlab, etc.
People used to use Sourceforge. But don’t. Seriously.
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Because you have to (based on need)
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Because it’s there
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Good way to learn
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Good way get a job
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Street cred
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Etc.
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Foundations (Apache, Eclipse, Mozilla, GNU, Software Freedom Conservancy, etc.)
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Companies
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Individuals
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It depends
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GPL software and proprietary version to pay for it.
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Donations
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Sponsorships
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Etc.
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Renting movies?
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But there’s alternatives
Make it open source. Manually type out a license. Essay? Hell no! Take home? Maybe, we’ll see. How to contribute? Licensing.
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Pick project, preferably actively developed in a language of your choosing.
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Get it to build (if it doesn’t, that could be a contribution itself)
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Meet upstream developers and their hangouts. Hereafter referred to as they.
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Look at their issue tracker. Great place to look for ideas.
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Figure out what your contribution will be.
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Do said thing.
I need your help to make it worthwhile.
I could use some rolling topics to discuss in class.
File an issue in this repo (Rolling topics)
cd illacceptanything git gui & gitk --all & git branch git checkout -b branch-name-goes-here touch a-turd git add a-turd git commit -m "Added crap." git checkout master touch another-turd git add another-turd git commit -m "Another turd" git merge pooper-scooper git checkout -b madmax # edit Poem.txt git commit -am "did stuff." git checkout master git checkout -b ode-2-whiskey # edit Poem.txt git commit -am "did stuff." git checkout master git checkout -b development git branch git branch -D pooper-scooper # Let's get a merge conflict git merge madmax git merge ode-2-whiskey # Woo hoo! Merge conflict! git mergetool # Or, do one of these: git checkout --ours poem.txt git checkout --theirs poem.txt git commit -am "Fixed merge conflict."
Don’t commit stuff with conflict markers! Here’s what they look like:
<<<<<<< HEAD Mad max is the man. Mad max roams the countryside. Mad max has an ax. ======= The devil wears black. And he goes by Jack. And he's really good at helping me forget. >>>>>>> ode-2-whiskey
Have you picked a project yet?
Either way, lets try to get something to build.
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Note
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Don’t do this in your repo, for the love of $deity
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Do this
cd illacceptanything git remote add upstream https://github.com/lawrancej/illacceptanything.git git pull upstream master chmod +x remotes.sh ./remotes.sh # Setup remotes git remote -v # Should see a long list git fetch --all # Fetch from everybody gitk --all & # See history
Merge in the work of whoever is sitting next to you.
git merge <remote-name>/master git push origin
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Note
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Don’t do this in your repo, for the love of $deity
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Click the "Fork" button.
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Clone your fork.
git clone URL-GOES-HERE-BUT-DONT-TYPE-LITERALLY -
cd illacceptanything -
Add stuff to the folder.
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git add . -
git commit -m "Message here" -
git push origin master -
Go to your repository, then submit a pull request.
With so many open source projects to choose, selecting one can be daunting.
Choose an open source project with:
- Users
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The more users, the better. Although contributing to an obscure project may expand the user base, contributing to a project that people use is a great feeling.
- Utility
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Does the project serve some user need? Games are fine, we need entertainment, but some projects are intended for neither users or developers (i.e., toy code).
- Familiarity
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Can you understand the source code? If you don’t know the language, pass on the project.
- Developers
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The more developers, the better. Most open source projects are the work of one person. You’ll get more out of this class if you contribute to projects with multiple developers.
- Activity
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Have developer(s) contributed to this project recently? Be wary of inactive projects, unless you want to become the maintainer.
Consider the nature of the contribution you make. These are excellent contributions:
- New features
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Creating a new feature to enable users to do something new helps users.
- Bug fixing
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Fixing some annoying problem helps users.
- Documentation writing
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Documenting how to build, use or contribute to the code helps users.
- Code cleanup
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Eradicating technical debt helps the developers, even though it may not affect users.
- Testing
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Writing a test suite helps the developers.
Consider your motivations.
- Intrinsic interest
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Would you do this in your spare time anyway? Great!
- Resume / portfolio building
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Does this contribution advance your career? Great!
Many small isolated commits (that are mergeable) is better than one gigantic commit.
Go to your repo (e.g., on Github, Bitbucket, Gitlab).
Create an issue in your repository. The issue title should reflect a project you are considering, the issue description should explain the contribution you want to make.
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Note
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Watch Git for ages 4 and up and read Producing Open Source Software by next class. |
Install these:
Run this to get into a local Linux (Ubuntu) VM:
vagrant init hashicorp/precise32 vagrant up vagrant ssh vagrant halt # Shutdown machine (opposite of up) vagrant destroy # Remove VM (opposite of init)
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run it for any purpose (freedom 0).
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study how the program works, and change it (freedom 1).
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redistribute copies (freedom 2).
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distribute copies of your modified versions (freedom 3).
Misconceptions about free software:
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You can’t sell it. (Yes, you can!)
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Don’t need to pay for it. (Sometimes you do)
Free software is NOT necessarily public domain (free of copyrights). Most free software is protected under copyright.
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Free Redistribution
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Source Code
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Derived Works
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Integrity of The Author’s Source Code
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No Discrimination Against Persons or Groups
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No Discrimination Against Fields of Endeavor
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Distribution of License
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License Must Not Be Specific to a Product
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License Must Not Restrict Other Software
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License Must Be Technology-Neutral
They’re almost the same. Free software respects user’s freedom, whereas open source respects developer’s freedom. When users and developers are the same, free and open source mean the same thing.
To understand the difference, open source digital rights management (DRM) could be a thing, but free software DRM is a contradiction.
To summarize (courtesy FSF via Advogato):
Three categories of intellectual property:
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Patents protects inventions.
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Trademarks protects brands.
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Copyright protects other creative works (anything you write)
Copyleft flips copyright: you may share as long as you share alike (under the same terms).
A license restricts what you can do with work under copyright, it defines the ground rules.
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Note
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Watch Revolution OS by next week. |
Pull from me:
cd ~/COMP406 # The easy way git pull upstream master # The leet way git fetch upstream git merge upstream/master # See a CONFLICT? Unlikely at this point git mergetool
Open up prequiz.adoc in your favorite text editor (it is in your local git repository).
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Warning
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Do not use Notepad or Word. Use a real text editor. Suggestions: Notepad++ (Windows), Atom, or Sublime. |
Then, save your changes and submit your work to your repository.
cd ~/COMP406 # The easy way git gui & # The leet way git add . git commit -m "Finished prequiz" git push -u --all origin
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Important
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As a professor, I tailor open source software for education; consider an open source project to improve in this class, and your circumstances. Think: "I need open source project X to do Y so that I can Z." For example, you may find an open source project difficult to use in some way. Identify the issues in the issue tracker, advocate for fixing them with upstream (e.g., on IRC), submit changes, and send a merge (pull) request. |
Step 1. Install Git and frontends
- Windows
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Note
Install MsysGit, Install KDiff, and choose OpenSSH (not PuTTY); otherwise, stick to the default settings. - Mac OS X
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Install GitX-dev, then Install XCode developer tools which ships with git (recommended) or install git from here.
- Linux
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Install git using your package manager. QGit, a git frontend may also be available for your distribution.
NoteDon’t forget to use sudo with your package manager.
curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/lawrancej/COMP406/master/main.sh | bash
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Reading groups, breakouts and discussion
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Study (and contribute to) an open source project
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Tip
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Carefully read the first sentence of every paragraph before deciding whether to skip or read the rest of the paragraph, since writers often state the point upfront and then support it in subsequent sentences. In short, you can read quickly with high comprehension by skipping the supporting material, if you understand the writer’s point and how they write. Of course, if you don’t understand the point, then read everything carefully, but beware of poorly written supporting material that distracts you. Obviously, skipping later sentences doesn’t always work: not all documents fit the "topic sentence followed by supporting points" structure of essays. For example, narratives often instead have dialogue among characters, but those are even easier to read quickly than large walls of text. Sometimes, bad writers put in pointless filler that doesn’t go anywhere, or even worse, bury the point in the middle of the paragraph. Good writers understand their audience and know that to get people to read their work, they must make their work easy to skim. Now pause for a second: did you see what I just did here? If you were thinking, this paragraph is itself a giant wall of text, I could have ignored the rest, and then realized that this is all a bit meta, then you not only understand the definition of the word meta, but you also ignored my advice about how to speed read, proving that you are kind of person who does the reading completely. Obviously, reading the whole paragraph gives you some nuance that can be rewarding, but then again, I think we can agree that the first sentence captured the rest of this paragraph pretty well, which is why you should have just skipped this paragraph full of inane, distracting filler. |
What is free software? What is open source software? What’s the difference? What’s copyleft? What’s permissive? What’s the difference among the licenses?
When did open source software start? What were the major accomplishments? Who were the key players? What has changed over the decades? Why do folks write open source software?
Who is in control of your computer? What do we give up when we cede control to others? What do we gain? Is it okay for others to decide what you can do with your computer? If so, when?
Who produces open source software? Who pays for it? Who profits from it? How can open source developers earn a living?
What can we learn from reading source code? What can source code teach us about software development?
How does one go about running and/or contributing to an open source project?
Who owns culture? How do the principles of free and open source software apply beyond software?
Need more books to read?