Glossary
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This is a glossary of some of the terms participants used in the survey.
I do not claim is be an expert in any of the terms listed.
I just did some web searching and I hope that this glossary helps.
Branching
Branching is to take a piece of code into a different line of development.
Unlike forking, branching usually ends up merging with the original code
base.
More information can be found in:
Compare with forking
Branching from
http://www.cvshome.org/
Branching from
"A Free CVS Book"
Concurrent Versions System
CVS is the Concurrent Versions System, the dominant open-source
network-transparent version control system. (Taken from
http://www.cvshome.org/)
More information can be found in:
Homepage of Concurrent Versions
System
A Free CVS Book
Dynabook
Dynabook is a concept invented by Alan Kay in the 70s.
The hardware for the concept is similar to today's handheld computers
but the aim of the concept is about providing a media that can empower the human mind.
More information can be found in:
Alan Kay's Dynabook
Alan Kay, a biography
Articles where Dynabook is mentioned
Tools for Thought: The Birth of the Fantasy Amplifier
Fanatic Life and Symbolic Death Among the Computer Bums
Egoless Programming
A concept proposed by Gerald Weinberg in his book "The Psychology of Computer Programming"
that programmers should not be territorial on their code
and making errors in programming is human nature.
Therefore, code should be scrutinised by other members of the team
and programs should be developed as a team effort.
More information can be found in:
Weinberg, Gerald M. 1971, The Psychology of Computer Programming,
Van Nostrand Reinhold, Cincinnati, New York.
Definition from Usability First
Definition from European Software Institute
Slashdot Review on "The Psychology of Computer Programming"
Extreme Programming
Extreme Programming (XP) is a deliberate and disciplined approach to software development.
(Taken from http://www.extremeprogramming.org/)
More information can be found in:
Extreme Programming: A Gentle Introduction
XProgramming.com - An Extreme Programming Resource
Extreme Programming FAQ
fork, or forking of a project
A fork is what occurs when two (or more) versions of a software package's
source code are being developed in parallel which once shared a common
code base, and these multiple versions of the source code have
irreconcilable differences between them. This should not be confused with
a development branch, which may later be folded back into the original
source code base. (Taken from the New Hacker's Dictionary)
More information can be found in:
Compare with branching
The fork entry in the New Hacker's Dictionary
Freshmeat
Freshmeat maintains the Web's largest index of Unix and cross-platform
open source software.
More information can be found in:
Freshmeat
GNU Coding Standards
The coding standard for free software recommended by the GNU project,
one of the most influential free software project.
More information can be found in:
GNU Coding Standards
Jane Jacobs' Systems of Survival - Commercial Moral Syndrome
Commercial Moral Syndrome
- Shun force
- Come to voluntary
agreements
- Be honest
- Collaborate easily with
strangers and aliens
- Compete
- Respect contracts
- Use initiative and
enterprise
- Be open to inventiveness
and novelty
- Be efficient
- Promote comfort and
convenience
- Dissent for the sake of the
task
- Invest for productive
purposes
- Be industrious
- Be thrifty
- Be optimistic
This concept is taken from Jane Jacob's book:
Jacobs, J. 1992, Systems of Survival. A Dialogue on the Moral Foundations of Commerce and Politics, Vintage Books/Random House, New York.
More information can be found in:
Review on Systems of Survival by Jane Jacobs#1
Review on Systems of Survival by Jane Jacobs#2
K&R
The influential book on C programming language by Brian Kernighan and Dennis Ritchie's,
"The C Programming Language".
More information can be found in:
The K&R entry in the New Hacker's Dictionary
qmail and ezmlm
qmail is a SMTP server and ezmlm is a mailing list manager
More information can be found in:
qmail homepage
rsync
rsync is an open source utility that provides fast incremental file transfer.
More information can be found in:
rsync web page
Self-Reliance and Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson was one of the greatest American philosophers. One of his most influential ideas was self-reliance.
More information can be found in:
The Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson
A sample of Ralph Waldo Emerson's Self-Reliance essay
Software Measurements (LOC, Function Points)
In order to investigate different aspects of software development (e.g. progress),
different software measurement methods are devised. Examples of those are:
- LOC - Lines of code
- Function Point - the sum of the number of different information domains in a software
weighted by their own complexity factors. Information domains includes
number of user inputs,
number of user outputs,
number of user inquiries and number of files.
More information can be found in:
Pressman, R. S. 1997, Software Engineering: A Practitioner's Approach, 4th Ed.,
McGraw-Hill, New York.
SourceForge
SourceForge provides a centralized place for Open Source Developers to
control and manage Open Source Software Development.
More information can be found in:
SourceForge
Wiki Wiki Web
A set of pages of information that are open and free for anyone to edit as they wish.
More information can be found in:
Wiki Wiki Web
Other References
The New Hacker's
Dictionary
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Infrastructure For Hosting Open Source Project (IFHOSP) Delphi Survey
Last Update: 25 Oct.
2001