A05: Open source software and the three prime directives

Goal

The goal of this assignment is for you to gain some experience using Java- based open source systems, and to gain an appreciation for the difficulties involved with achieving the Three Prime Directives of Open Source Software Engineering. To do this, you will take the role of a user of an open source systems, and try to download, install, and use the package. You will write up your experiences for presentation in class and submission.

Requirements

Go to https://github.com/search?l=java&o=desc&q=stars%3A%3E1&s=stars&type=Repositories, which will retrieve a listing of Java-based projects sorted such that those with the most stars are listed first. Look through this list for a Java-based open source project that looks interesting to you. If you’re not interested in Android, you may have to search past the first few pages of hits. Attempt to download, install, and use the system. Then create a posting in your professional portfolio site that summarizes your experience. The entry should have the following sections:

Your entry should be well written and of professional caliber. It should consist of complete sentences, and contain no spelling errors or grammatical mistakes. View this as similar to a preliminary report to the Chief Technology Officer of a high tech company regarding whether or not the open source package should be adopted by the company or not. For each Prime Directive, provide actual examples (“evidence”) from your usage of the system to justify your opinion. Include at least one screen image to illustrate how the program looks. Make sure that when I click on the “Postings” menu item in your professional portfolio, this posting appears along with others. If not, you have probably not set up your “Categories” correctly. See the screencast for more details. You must work alone on this project.

Submission instructions

By the date and time on the Schedule page, send johnson@hawaii.edu an email containing the URL to your posting. Your URL should start with “http:” so that my mailer will recognize it as an URL and make it clickable. Note: the subject line must be [ICS 314: A05]. If the subject line is different, then I might not see the email and you might not get credit for this assignment.