Current open source project

I am currently working on a project called "Improve Mozilla Application and Platform Documentation" with Matthew Gertner and Eric Sheppard from Mozilla. This project purpose is to "find out which APIs are being used and how, what is hard, what could be improved, etc." Currently, Matt has created a script that retrieves various results that can be used as valuable information for this project where I am trying to get a hold of people in big Mozilla project to run it. For more information, follow the link below.

http://www.allpeers.com/blog/2007/09/28/mozpad-api-project-update/

Real World Mozilla Source Code Reading Lab

I got my first hand experience on searching and reading Mozilla code using the mozilla cross reference website with the tool - sea monkey. I find this application to be very useful in finding ANY type of source code or functions that is available. My first attempt was to research how the Stop button for a browser would work. As a first timer, I trailed off and found the cancel button to stop file downloads. I thought it was the same concept using the same class but it actually wasn't as Dave (professor) told me. I continued to search for the correct one but it is harder then i thought it would be. You have to dig through a lot of code to find the source!

Building Firefox

WOW! I finally finish building Firefox. It took a little bit over 90 minutes on my laptop. My laptop is quite old (Pentium M 1.5Ghz, 512 ram). At first, i read over the instructions on how to build but i ended up encountering some errors. I re-read the instructions and i seem to have miss a key line... which was

mk_add_options MOZ_CO_PROJECT=browser

ac_add_options --enable-application=browser

which is needed. I thought it wasn't necessary so i spent some time figuring things out. My overall experience of building Firefox is pretty exciting as i have never build anything this BIG before. There are so much source code and files to process, i don't even know where to start reading. I am surely going to look at this browser in more detail down the road.

The Cathedral and the Bazaar

I just finish reading this article and it really gave me a good impression on the concept of Open source development. The 19 points/highlights explained how to adapt/work in the open source community and for the success of projects. The 'fetchmail' project was a excellent example from the starting point to now, how people in the community collaborate together to develop something so powerful. At the end of the article, i am humble by this statement...

"I think that the cutting edge of open-source software will belong to people who start from individual vision and brilliance, then amplify it through the effective construction of voluntary communities of interest."

I think this is what open source is all about. I now know the importance of open source and hope to learn and work with these concepts.

First Post

First post for Seneca Open Source DPS909 class.