2007-09-20 Thursday

Next week I will be working on the installation of CruiseControl at a client site - and integrating it with Subversion, the bug tracking system, as well as some automated testing tools.

This Continuous Integration Server Feature Matrix is worth reviewing for other possible choices.

IMPROVING SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS AND PROJECT MANAGEMENT WITH SOFTWARE PROJECT TELEMETRY

(A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE DIVISION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAI‘I IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN COMPUTER SCIENCE DECEMBER 2006 By Qin Zhang)

Driving On CruiseControl - Part 1, (Lasse Koskela, Accenture Technology Solutions)

The Deployment Production Line (Jez Humble, Chris Read, Dan North, ThoughtWorks Limited)

Agile Development in .NET (Neal Ford, Application Architect ThoughtWorks)

Using Open Source .NET Tools for Sophisticated Builds

Yesterday I was in the process of opening a 230MB XML file (a single record exported out of SQL Server 2005, from a client's customized project management system) - and trying to open it within Eclipse. As it was taking some time to open the file - I decided to fix a small annoying problem I had been experiencing with the behavior of a right-click feature I had enabled in Microsoft's File Explorer via a useful registry hack. [foreshadowing ominous music plays]...

Eclipse decided that it did not want to play any more - and choked on loading the file. I finished making my quick change to the registry - and discovered that every time I tried to open any program - Windows had somehow mapped Eclipse as the executable.

I couldn't open Regedit - couldn't open a DOS prompt - couldn't access the control panel or the Accessories / System Tools > System Restore.

After a few hours of investigation - I managed to trick the system into opening cmd.exe to a DOS promopt - and was agle to run c:\Windows\System32\reg.exe to export varous registry keys. A few more hours of investigation - and I isolated the problem to a loss of Windows mapping of the EXE file type to Application. Whew.

This link was very helpful: Broken EXE Association. The Microsoft


I've recently spent some time researching JSON for a client engagement:

POSSIBLE JSON PROS:

- messages [should be] are smaller than comparable XML XSD message structures.

POSSIBLE JSON CONS:

- Lack of support for complex data types
- One of the issues that is hotly debated about using JSON type data-exchanges revolves around JSON's relative weakness in doing complex data-type validation as compared to using an XML XSD.
- JSON doesn't support namespaces (???)

An introduction to JSON


Debate: JSON vs. XML as a data interchange format

The Case For JSON: What Is It and Why Use It?


XML vs JSON writer performance issues (- ? -)


The JSON vs XML debate begins in earnest

Speeding Up AJAX with JSON

Schema for JSON

Arguments against the Semantic Web


Tim Bray on XML v. JSON

Don Box on XML v. JSON



JSON REFERENCES:

json.org

Using JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) with Yahoo! Web Services

Intro to JSON, Frederic Jean

Yahoo JSON Discussion Group


JSON PDF presentation - Gopalarathnam Venkatesan, Yahoo! Inc

Some interesting white papers: Farallon Enterprise GIS Presentations

Generic e-Government GIS [using JSON]

I'm researching tools to help a client perform analysis of millions of lines of legacy mainframe code (COBOL, Natural, etc.) - some of my preliminary research has identified the following possible resources on the web:

CASE Vendor List - David Alex Lamb, Software Technology Laboratory, Department of Computing and Information Science, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada


College of Staten Island - Comp-Sci Dept - CASE tools by category


Comp.software-eng FAQ (Part 4): CASE tool vendors

XTran

Code Generation Network

Code Generation Tools Discussion - (Sergey Dmitriev, the CEO of JetBrains, maker of the IntelliJ IDE for Java)


http://arxiv.org/ftp/cs/papers/0503/0503068.pdf

reengineer.org/

wikipedia: List of tools for static code analysis...more

sourcenav.sourceforge.net/

http://www.naspa.com/supercharge-your-mainframe-applications-ridding-them-unused-cobol-code

softwaremining.com

SoftwareMining offers some of the world’s most advanced Legacy Modernization Tools according to independent reports by leading analysts and Systems Integrators. Our mission is to help our clients extract value from their legacy investments. Our range of tools and services includes

COBOL to Java Translation, COBOL to C# Translation. SoftwareMining's Rapid Transformation Tools are designed to generate legible, maintainable systems, helping to lower the risk of modernisation and increase the project ROI through quick and efficient processes.


Business Rule Extraction (BRE) is the process of isolating and reporting of Business-Rules from the application code. With text, graphical and flowchart outputs, SoftwareMining’s easy-to-use, drag-and-drop BRE toolkit enables the user to carry out in-depth analysis and reporting on the COBOL application code.


Legacy Migration Consultancy - Our broad experience with COBOL legacy application transformation is available to assist our clients carry out transformation risk assessments, develop re-hosting, re-writing or migration project plans, build a business case, calculate ROI and more.

dmoz.org: COBOL products and services

raincode.com - COBOL Engine

http://www.semdesigns.com/Products/DMS/DMSToolkit.html

Visustin

Visustin is an automated diagramming tool for software developers and document writers. Visustin diagrams Ada, ASP, assembly language, BASIC, C/C++, C#, Clipper, COBOL, Fortran, Java, JSP, JavaScript, LotusScript, Pascal/Delphi, Perl, PHP, PL/SQL, PowerScript, PureBasic, Python, QuickBASIC, REALbasic, T-SQL, VB, VBA, VB.NET and Visual FoxPro code

http://search.techrepublic.com.com/search/Source+Code+and+flowchart.html


http://www.cobug.com/cobug/docs/documentation0035.html
http://www.cobug.com/cobug/docs/codeconver0031.html

http://www.fileflash.com/allfiles/draw_cobol_flow/

http://www.sharewareconnection.com/titles/flowchart-source-code-word.htm

http://www.owasp.org/index.php/Category:OWASP_Project

http://www.laatuk.com/tools/documentation_tools.html

http://www.microtool.de/case40/en/sp_cobol.asp

http://www.uni-koblenz.de/FB4/Contrib/GUPRO/Site/Home/index_html

http://www.iste.uni-stuttgart.de/ps/bauhaus/presentation.pdf

http://www.softscout.com/software/Website-and-Software-Development/Programming-Tools/Source-Code-Analyzers-and-Translators/all.html


http://www.source-recovery.com/srcn-examples.html

The ReSource™ technology determines which version of COBOL or Assembler your source code was originally written in. SRC recovers the source in the original "version" of that language.

Very-Large Scale Code Analysis and Visualization of Open Source Programs Using Distributed CCFinder: D-CCFinder (Department of Computer Science, Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, Osaka University)

Another area of recent research has been on the topic of online meeting / collaboration software. The following items are what look interesting so far:

Web Conferencing Tools And Technology: A Mini-Guide

Web-Conferencing Software Comparison Chart

Free web conferencing solutions for productive online meetings

An independent guide to software & services enabling real-time communication

OpenMeetings

a web conference tool...tha...includes Video, Audio, Whiteboard, Document Importing, Invitations, and Public and Private conference rooms.

TANGO - open source Java based system

http://data.webjunction.org/wj/documents/12479.pdf

Virtual Collaboratory - wikipedia entry

"The Virtual Collaboratory provides mechanisms for users to exchange information, data, on-line resources, and ideas. In a collaboratory, individuals from different locations are able to work together using VoIP, document exchange and other features"

WebHuddle - sourceforge

DimDim - sourceforge - screenshots

"Dimdim is an open source web meeting product with features like Application, Desktop and Presentation sharing with A/V streaming and chat. No attendee installation - all features are available through a web browser. Dimdim can be integrated with Moodle. "

Yugma

"Yugma is a free web collaboration service that enables people to instantly connect over the internet to communicate and share content and ideas using any application or software. Whether you are using Windows, Mac or Linux computer, you can connect on-demand and real-time with co-workers, clients, friends and family -- regardless of whether they are across the city, nation or even the globe."

Open source impossible to avoid, Gartner says