This was a good meeting!

Today I was on the #seneca-oop344 channel on freenode and noticed Code junkies team having a meeting so I sat and watched. I was amazed to see how nicely this group managed an IRC meeting and used the SVN repository to work on their project concurrently and debug their code.

Few weeks ago these students had no idea what IRC or a code repository is but now take a look: http://tinyurl.com/condjunkies1

Good job!

Other OOP344 teams should take a look and follow....

I have a problem with eclipse

I want to use eclipse (C/C++) on Fedora for my OOP344 introduction to open source class and I have a problem preventing me to do so.

The project we are doing is a multi platform text editor in text mode and I need to run and debug the program in a shell window of its own.

In windows, Visual Studio, that is exactly what is happening. I can run and debug the program and walk through each line while the text editor is running in a separate text window. Like this I can demonstrate the execution steps for the students.

In eclipse however, the output of the program is redirected into a console tab within the IDE!!!

That completely ruins the purpose of using an IDE to show the students how the program is running. Of course I can build the project then run the program from a shell window, but then what is the difference between eclipse and a syntax highlighting text editor?

Does anyone know how to have eclipse run the program in a separate shell of its own?

Feedback is greatly appreciated...

OOP344 - Object Oriented Programing Using C++ and an introduction to Open Source

First semester of trying open source on OOP344 is passed with some interesting results;

I took a subject that teaches Object Oriented programming using C++ and added open source concept to it.

By changing the subject to an open source format;

• Students Understood the material better and could get help much easier by having the concept of collaboration as one of the bases of their work.
• I covered the material much faster but also did it more effectively so I actually had a week of extra time to review and re-touch the complex aspects of C++ language and OOP.
• Students not only learnt what they were supposed to, with respect to object orientation and complex programming, but also learnt how to do this in groups using open source concepts and effectively boost each other's strengths and make up for each other's weaknesses.
• Students became aware of "Open Source" !!!
• Students lost the fear of getting involve in programs with huge source code.

Future results:

• I am hoping that this will attract the students, to pick our (Seneca) Open Source subjects in future.
• Lots of time will be saved in open source subjects in future, by skipping lectures about IRC, wiki, code repositories, and other open source collaborative tools.

I only had one problem; I did not have enough time to make the students comfortable with the "unusualness" of open source and just as they became used to the idea, the semester was over.

By "unusualness" of open source, I mean to reward sharing instead of penalizing it, to learn to work in a community rather than behind closed doors and to gain by giving.

To overcome the lack of time, this semester, I started the open concept from the very first day; I started the use of wiki, blogging, IRC, and code repositories from day one.

I am hoping that by doing this, by the time we get to complex coding, (in mid semester) the students can think about how to code rather than how to commit the code to svn!

This, (introduction to open source) I hope, will pave the way for the student to participate more easily in real open source subjects and communities in Seneca like Openoffce.org, Mozilla, Fedora, etc...

The New OOP344 - Intro to Open Source continued!

As I mentioned in my last blog about this, (to attract and familiarize students to open source subjects in Seneca) I converted one of the prerequisite courses of these subject to a semi-open source format. The prerequisite course is OOP344. I did not change or remove any of the content. I just changed the tools and mothods of the student activity. I am using SVN, for assignment development in groups, Wiki for documentation, IRC for student help and blogs + wiki + IRC for student participation. The result isthe new OOP344.

What I intended was to keep the first part of the semester "closed", so students write few libraries by themselves and then use it for the second part in open format. But to my surprise, even though the fist assignment was "closed", students started helping each other to understand the concept and do their work.

I also, gave challenges in class and asked the students to blog the answer. The reward was marks for first two solutions and first two most efficient solutions.

Students started to actively blog about their work, and more to that, they took each others work and perfected it and made it their own.

So far, it has been an amazing experience. The opensource part of the semester is just started and students are diving into coding and finding themselves in a project in much larger scale than they ever encountered.

I am hoping this works to both students and open source subjects benefit in Seneca.

Our IRC channels are #seneca and #seneca-oop344 on freenode server

The New OOP344 - Object Oriented Programming II Using C++ @ Seneca

During summer of 2009 I attended POSSE (Professors' Open Source Summer Experience) and got many ideas to help introduce students to open source.

I decided to change one of the subjects I teach in Seneca to a "Simulated Open Source Model".

I believe by doing this, I can help the students understand the open source method of development in a less stressful and more controlled environment and encourage them to take the open source subjects later in Seneca.

The first time I got involved with an open source subject in Seneca, I found out that the step from educational programming to open source programming is a little too big for many of the students.
Before the students take the first open source subject in Seneca:

• The lengthiest program they dealt with is few hundred lines of code.
• They have done it either by themselves or in a group of 2 or 3 students.
• They have to come up with a solution by themselves, through research or help of the prof.

The first time a student is introduced to open source;

• The code size of the projects is hundreds of thousands of lines if not millions.
• They have to learn to work with huge groups developers.
• The source of their code it open for everyone to see and criticize and they probably will never meet the person helping and guiding them in their code.

This major change I believe makes the job of the student and professor very difficult. The learning curve is very steep and students keep up with difficulty.

I believe by having an introductory subject like OOP344 as a semi open source subject, students will become familiar to the type of work awaiting them, when they take the "real" open source subject.

Since this is a college, we teach through practice; OOP344 topics are taught in parallel with developing an application that is probably the first complicated program they encountered.

In the application, the student is to take over the text-base console input/output routines of several different platforms and write some kind of simple interactive "dialog box". The IO routines are written in C language and later encapsulated into classes using C++ and then some kind of a "dialog box" is written using these classe. Eventually, at the end, an application (like a record browser) is written using the "dialog box" class.

This project is done individually.

The Change:

• The project is changed to something that is just big enough not be able to be done by one person. (a Text editor for this semester)
• The first part of the assignment will be done individually (the basic "C" IO routines) so they can learn,exercise and then be evaluated for their programming skills. This will take 3 to 4 weeks.
  
• The C++ part of the assignment will be done in teams.
• At the beginning of the 3rd week, the students will be asked to form groups in larger teams than they usually do, ( I am thinking of up to 8 students but I am open to suggestions)
• The Teams are required to use a repository (SVN or Mercurial... suggestions?) for their source code.
• The assignment is fully designed. Students can, by only follow the specs, have a simple text editor. But if they want to, they can add as much features as they want or change the specs to make it work with desired features. (this should be approved by the prof to make sure the additions are feasible)
• The students are required to blog about their work and help each other through their blogs and they will be mark accordingly for their collaborative work and their contribution.
• They are required to maintain and contribute to the wiki pages created for the subject.
• They are required to use IRC for their meetings and immediate questions. (I will also set "online office hours" on IRC to encourage use of IRC.)

Take a look at here for to see the course as it develops....

I just programmed for 8 miles....

I just got back from POSSE (Professors Open Source Summer Experience) hosted by Red Hat. It was quite an experience indeed.

I met new people with the same goal, shared experiences and learnt the way open source communities work. It gave me many ideas that I am going to work on one by one and you'll read about it here as I go through them.

It is true that I learnt many things about Open Source, but I saw something in Red Hat head quarters that I think it will change the way I work for rest of my life;

Like all other geeks I am always glued to my computer screen in worst posture possible. It gives me back pain, neck pain and after few hours of coding, I feel like I can not stand up straight any more.

Greg, during the final hours of POSSE was talking about how he walks and works on his treadmill at home and then he took us down to the offices of those working at Red Hat and there is was; a treadmill/desk hybrid!!!. It was literary a treadmill with a tall (with adjustable height) desk attached in front of it.

Taking Greg's advice on how it can cause neck pain because of looking down for a long time, I made few improvements and converted my own treadmill to a workstation; The notebook monitor is at the eye level, so while walking on treadmill I will look forward instead of down, I added an additional monitor for dual head (multiple screen) capability and also set two height settings for the keyboard (so my wife can use it too).

It took me a day and a half and 100 Dollars to build it and since then (24 hours ago) I burned 1300 calories!!

Here it is at work: [Video]

Now the only problem I have is to fight with my wife on who is going to jump on the treadmill to work(out)!!!

I will blog with closeup shots on keyboard stand and monitor stand, so if you like to convert your treadmill to a work station, you can get an idea of how it is done.

POSSE - Day 3

Today was the most enjoying day of POSSE. We worked on Mozilla to make a little change in the way new tabs are added.

We worked on our builds on remote virtual machines and searched the code for the proper place for modification. We used Mozilla Cross-Reference for searching the code. I searched trough huge projects like openoffice.org before. Their search engine is called {OpenGrok. I have to admit, that searching through Mozilla code is much easier than going through Openoffice.org.

The remote debugging was too slow so I decided to check out the code and work locally on my own machine, Christian did the same but only few minutes before me and apparently someone during those couple of minutes committed a patch that broke the build.

His build was going through, but mine, doing the exact same thing was failing.
It was interesting for me to see how just couple of minutes difference in checking out the code, could cause such difference it build.

Collaborating Online

Working collaboratively, online, need some getting used to before you can really be productive. Like all other new things, it has many pros and cons;

It brings down the cost in development-collaboration by making it possible to work with someone thousands of miles away "almost" as if you are in neighboring cubicles. The communication is easily logged and nothing is forgotten. Also there is no limit to the number of people collaborating on a task.

On the other hand, the lack of physical presence can cause lots of confusion in parties; like understanding each other’s mode! (I guess that is what emoticons are for). Also managing participants of a discussion and organizing efforts and tasks could be tedious.

Having said all this, do we have a choice? Just look at the size of the communities handling the projects. Is there any other way than online collaboration? Do we have the budget to get all those taking part in tasks together for a meeting whenever something breaks down?

It is different! It lacks human touch! But like any other new thing, it will, and in fact it has become part of our lives. My wife and I, sometimes, talk with each other through our chat programs from our desks at home, instead of just turning our head and speak up!!!

I believe, if we learn to live with it, like any other piece of technology, it will help us to be more productive. (and less human?)

Hotel sweet hotel

Well, after not being able to find any hotel on the way to Raleigh I decided to drive through the night with the exception of taking a two hour nap in the car.

I got to the hotel with no problem and got connected to Internet.

Hotel sweet hotel, time to take a loooong nap!

On our way to POSSE

We, left home around noon and it took us 4.5 hours to get to peace-bridge boarder where it usually takes 1.5 hours! What a traffic in QEW, I guess everyone is going to POSSE ;).

Passing the boarder was a breeze. Thanks Mr. Obama! , no finger printing, or long waits! All we needed to do was to surrender out oranges to the customs officer!!!.

We passed the border in 35 seconds where it usually takes 4 hours!! So I think we are even.

Still 1024 kms to drive; till next WiFi rest area...