This has certainly been the busiest September for me in many many years. I can even say the busiest in my life.
After finishing August in a high note with the Ruby Ireland Rails 3.1 launch party, September started with a Ruby Project night in amworks in which we were working a bit on Conway's Game of Life.
The following week two events took place, on the Tuesday the dublinjs meetup with a fantastic backbone.js presentation by David and a kata by Wiktor, and on the Saturday I had the privilege to co-organise and co-facilitate the first code retreat in Dublin (and in Ireland as far as I know!).
If that was not enough, on Sunday I took a flight to Madrid to attend XPWeek. The Monday was a full day of talks, and the rest of the week I attended the TDD courses by Carlos Ble.
I have posts coming about some of these events so won't go into details here, but all the events were absolutely fantastic!
We have also been pushing a new release of Open Wonderland for a while and I think there will be some juicy news out very soon, which is very exciting!
And tomorrow, 1st of October I will certainly not be missing the SocketStream session that the AOL Dublin guys are preparing. That is if this stupid cold I've been nursing since I'm back in Ireland allows me to get out of bed!
Showing posts with label course. Show all posts
Showing posts with label course. Show all posts
Friday, September 30, 2011
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Open Wonderland, High level Architecture - the story of the system
I would highly recommend Michael C. Feathers' 'Working effectively with legacy code' to anyone who cares about code, how it is written and how to deal with complex and (automated) untested systems.
Although the word legacy might evoke images of Fortran or COBOL procedures, the definition in the book refers to any kind of system that does not have an automated suite of test to rely on when making changes.
It was in this book where I read about the concept of telling the story of the system. According to the author, you need at least two people for this technique to be effective. One asks the other; What is the Architecture of the system?
The other will answer the question in just a couple of sentences, using only a few concepts, and targeting individuals with no prior knowledge on the system itself.
So I asked Jon Kaplan if he'd be so kind to put this into practice with Open Wonderland and this is the result:
Although the word legacy might evoke images of Fortran or COBOL procedures, the definition in the book refers to any kind of system that does not have an automated suite of test to rely on when making changes.
It was in this book where I read about the concept of telling the story of the system. According to the author, you need at least two people for this technique to be effective. One asks the other; What is the Architecture of the system?
The other will answer the question in just a couple of sentences, using only a few concepts, and targeting individuals with no prior knowledge on the system itself.
So I asked Jon Kaplan if he'd be so kind to put this into practice with Open Wonderland and this is the result:
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Connecting Open Wonderland to external services
I've been working on a tutorial about how to connect Wonderland to (and from) services on the Internet (webservices).
I am a big fan of REST so that's what I chose for the first tutorial that can be found in the community wiki.
The code for the module can be found in my github account: REST sample module, and this is a screencast showing what you can expect from the module:
As per the utility of this module, as it stands it is quite limited, but what I am trying to show here is that it is very simple to connect to external sources, and in the same way that this very simple module sends information to be stored in an external database, other REST communication could be as easily programmed, be it integration with services such as twitter or facebook, or learning management systems such as moodle or sakai.
You can see some similar examples by Bernard Horan in Wonderblog and his youtube channel.
Client communication is not the only way that Open Wonderland can communicate with external services and I have started documenting this topic in this page. Please feel free to contribute; help will be much appreciated.
I am a big fan of REST so that's what I chose for the first tutorial that can be found in the community wiki.
The code for the module can be found in my github account: REST sample module, and this is a screencast showing what you can expect from the module:
As per the utility of this module, as it stands it is quite limited, but what I am trying to show here is that it is very simple to connect to external sources, and in the same way that this very simple module sends information to be stored in an external database, other REST communication could be as easily programmed, be it integration with services such as twitter or facebook, or learning management systems such as moodle or sakai.
You can see some similar examples by Bernard Horan in Wonderblog and his youtube channel.
Client communication is not the only way that Open Wonderland can communicate with external services and I have started documenting this topic in this page. Please feel free to contribute; help will be much appreciated.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Workarounds and Tutorials
I have been working a bit on the community wiki, adding content and some workarounds for problems that have been mentioned in the list. Here are a couple of links:
A tutorial to explain components, which is a work in progress, and I would really appreciate some help with it. It uses the tooltip component as source code.
A workaround for the scripting component editor window, that does not seem to get along well with Windows boxes. This is the ScriptingComponent module in modules/unstable.
I would quickly like to mention a new module that allows scripting in a different way that the already existing module does. EZScript is being written by Ryan, and it can also be found in modules/unstable. It's only a couple of weeks old, and in almost incubation phase, but looks really promising. Looking forward to playing with it a bit more!
A tutorial to explain components, which is a work in progress, and I would really appreciate some help with it. It uses the tooltip component as source code.
A workaround for the scripting component editor window, that does not seem to get along well with Windows boxes. This is the ScriptingComponent module in modules/unstable.
I would quickly like to mention a new module that allows scripting in a different way that the already existing module does. EZScript is being written by Ryan, and it can also be found in modules/unstable. It's only a couple of weeks old, and in almost incubation phase, but looks really promising. Looking forward to playing with it a bit more!
Friday, January 28, 2011
Empty module for Open Wonderland development
I was going through the first part of the 4 part tutorial Developing a new Cell when I realised that the empty module that is available for download contains quite an outdated classpath for use with Netbeans. So I decided to create a new one an upload it to my github account, mainly because in this way it can be developed further if things change in the near future (this pretty much means: feedback very welcome!).
As it stands now, the module is just an updated copy of the one in the tutorial. With time, I'm planning to modify the build file to add testing libraries (probably JUnit and mockito). It would be really cool if these dependencies could be 'pushed down' in to the Wonderland building system so that they are available to all module developers out of the box. But for now, feel free to clone, fork, or download the code.
If your local copy of Wonderland source files follows the structure in the README file, then you should be ready to go with little changes to the module (just a couple of rename actions, and the cusotmisation of my.module.properties).
To make it even easier, I've recorded a screencast, and I've been working (in progress) on an update of the tutorial material.
As it stands now, the module is just an updated copy of the one in the tutorial. With time, I'm planning to modify the build file to add testing libraries (probably JUnit and mockito). It would be really cool if these dependencies could be 'pushed down' in to the Wonderland building system so that they are available to all module developers out of the box. But for now, feel free to clone, fork, or download the code.
If your local copy of Wonderland source files follows the structure in the README file, then you should be ready to go with little changes to the module (just a couple of rename actions, and the cusotmisation of my.module.properties).
To make it even easier, I've recorded a screencast, and I've been working (in progress) on an update of the tutorial material.
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Open Wonderland Development course starting tomorrow
I cannot believe it is already tomorrow!!! I am really excited and cannot wait to start working.
In the end a great bunch of people applied for the course, and although initially I was only offering 10 seats, it will be 12 of us starting the course. Hope it will also be 12 of us finishing it!
I am truly sorry to have had to deny several applications, but the pre-requisites were higher than an introductory course, and a good bunch of people did not complete the sign-up task, so I could not approve their applications.
If you are still interested, you can follow the course through the P2PU site, as all the content is openly available. Course link.
Looking forward to starting this collaborative project and I will be documenting several steps of the process in this blog, so stay tuned if you want to hear more!
In the end a great bunch of people applied for the course, and although initially I was only offering 10 seats, it will be 12 of us starting the course. Hope it will also be 12 of us finishing it!
I am truly sorry to have had to deny several applications, but the pre-requisites were higher than an introductory course, and a good bunch of people did not complete the sign-up task, so I could not approve their applications.
If you are still interested, you can follow the course through the P2PU site, as all the content is openly available. Course link.
Looking forward to starting this collaborative project and I will be documenting several steps of the process in this blog, so stay tuned if you want to hear more!
Friday, January 14, 2011
sample sign-up task for the OWL development course
This is a sample of what I am expecting to see with applications for the course. The exercise is explained in the Sign-up task section at the main page of the OpenWonderland development course at P2PU.
Here is the screenshot of the bean-shell plugin working on my local Wonderland server:
To get it to work I had to compile and run the core server, and then, from the wonderland-modules unstable folder, cd into the beanshell-plugin directory and type:
ant deploy
That deployed the module to my server. To activate it, I just added it from the main Wonderland menu (tools --> Beanshell console).
Reflection: I did not run into any trouble doing this, but this was only because I had done it before! call it cheating if you like! ;-)
And this is all you need to finish the sign-up task. The last step would be to apply for the course and send me the link to your blog post.
Here is the screenshot of the bean-shell plugin working on my local Wonderland server:
 |
| Saying hi from beside the Beanshell Console |
To get it to work I had to compile and run the core server, and then, from the wonderland-modules unstable folder, cd into the beanshell-plugin directory and type:
ant deploy
That deployed the module to my server. To activate it, I just added it from the main Wonderland menu (tools --> Beanshell console).
Reflection: I did not run into any trouble doing this, but this was only because I had done it before! call it cheating if you like! ;-)
And this is all you need to finish the sign-up task. The last step would be to apply for the course and send me the link to your blog post.
Open Wonderland Development Course at P2PU
I am organising an 'Open Wonderland Development course' at P2PU. This is a course that follows a peer to peer approach, it is all community based, and totally free.
About P2PU
The Peer to Peer University is a bit different. All work is done through p2p collaboration. Courses generally run for 6 weeks (next batch starting on the 26th of January 2011). You do not need to be an expert to organise a course, mainly because of the fact that you will be a facilitator, as opposed to a teacher/lecturer. All you need is a collection of open accessible resources to run a course (you can also create your own).
I think this model fits perfectly the software profession, if you compare it with the individualised approaches of any 'normal' university. You will not get a degree after finishing a course, but you might get much more out of it...
About Open Wonderland
Open Wonderland is a toolkit to create virtual worlds. It is 100% Java, it has a relatively small core, but its extensibility through 'wonderland modules' makes of it a platform to do pretty much whatever you want within the 3D environment. Out of the box you can share X11 apps within the world (Open office, Chrome, Eclipse, or freemind work pretty well), communicate through text, voice, or even the telephone, and drag and drop all kinds of digital materials such as pdf files, images, etc.
You can also write your own modules. One of the available modules is an scripting engine based on "JSR 223: Scripting for the Java platform". Using this module you can script objects inside the virtual world using any language supported by the specification (Javascript, PHP, Ruby, and so on).
The project was initially born at Sun Microsystems in 2007, but support from Sun/Oracle stopped earlier last year(2010). It was an open source project from inception and although most people envisioned its death after Oracle laid off the team, it has been quite a different story since then. The community has taken control of the project through the creation of the Open Wonderland Foundation (non-profit), and all kinds of meetings inworld have been happening ever since. All Wednesdays at 1pm (EST) there are development meetings in which the community share an instance of Netbeans and hack on code as a group (every avatar can take control of the instance and start driving).
I do have to say that things are going a lot slower, no doubt of that, but there are more users now than ever before, and development continues at a steady pace.
Motivation
So, why am I doing this, what's in it for me? The experience really. I was not part of the initial wonderland team and my association has not been other than as a volunteer in the community for the last few months. I thought this would be a good way to give back to the community.
I am also a researcher in IT in Education, and this is just a way for me to experiment with ideas, mostly taken from Software Craftsmanship.
I see a few different ways that learning can be organised around the wonderland system (apart from development work which will also be covered).
Although it is a fairly big system (with a small core), test automation is almost inexistent. One of my goals would be to start inspecting the system by testing it from within, and see where that leads us. There is a test harness in place, but it hasn't been used much and it would be great to inspect that too.
Another course for experimenting is the building system. Ant scripts exist for the system but dependency management is not explicit. The build is also way too dependent on netbeans.
These are two scenarios that people are quite likely to find in their everyday job. So, what's in it for you? Well, the experience really! :)
Some people might find attractive the fact that some out of the office learning can being organised (to a point) by someone else. I say 'to a point' because, as mentioned earlier, this is a peer to peer experience, I am not an expert, and learning is ultimately the responsibility of the participants themselves.
This is a 'distance learning experience', and I do not expect people meeting face to face, but I do expect meetings avatar to avatar. It is definitely not the same (nowhere near!) but in my opinion is the closest experience to the real thing that I've had so far.
In a nutshell
So, as a summary, if you are interested in learning through technology, be it software development, testing automation, scm, and so on, and you want to do it within an existing system, and more importantly, in a collaboratively, community-based way, please have a look at the course.
Link to the course: http://www.p2pu.org/general/open-wonderland-development-java
Dates: starting on January the 26th (2011)
Pre-requisites: Please read through the sign-up task (main page of the course) before applying.
About P2PU
The Peer to Peer University is a bit different. All work is done through p2p collaboration. Courses generally run for 6 weeks (next batch starting on the 26th of January 2011). You do not need to be an expert to organise a course, mainly because of the fact that you will be a facilitator, as opposed to a teacher/lecturer. All you need is a collection of open accessible resources to run a course (you can also create your own).
I think this model fits perfectly the software profession, if you compare it with the individualised approaches of any 'normal' university. You will not get a degree after finishing a course, but you might get much more out of it...
About Open Wonderland
Open Wonderland is a toolkit to create virtual worlds. It is 100% Java, it has a relatively small core, but its extensibility through 'wonderland modules' makes of it a platform to do pretty much whatever you want within the 3D environment. Out of the box you can share X11 apps within the world (Open office, Chrome, Eclipse, or freemind work pretty well), communicate through text, voice, or even the telephone, and drag and drop all kinds of digital materials such as pdf files, images, etc.
You can also write your own modules. One of the available modules is an scripting engine based on "JSR 223: Scripting for the Java platform". Using this module you can script objects inside the virtual world using any language supported by the specification (Javascript, PHP, Ruby, and so on).
The project was initially born at Sun Microsystems in 2007, but support from Sun/Oracle stopped earlier last year(2010). It was an open source project from inception and although most people envisioned its death after Oracle laid off the team, it has been quite a different story since then. The community has taken control of the project through the creation of the Open Wonderland Foundation (non-profit), and all kinds of meetings inworld have been happening ever since. All Wednesdays at 1pm (EST) there are development meetings in which the community share an instance of Netbeans and hack on code as a group (every avatar can take control of the instance and start driving).
I do have to say that things are going a lot slower, no doubt of that, but there are more users now than ever before, and development continues at a steady pace.
Motivation
So, why am I doing this, what's in it for me? The experience really. I was not part of the initial wonderland team and my association has not been other than as a volunteer in the community for the last few months. I thought this would be a good way to give back to the community.
I am also a researcher in IT in Education, and this is just a way for me to experiment with ideas, mostly taken from Software Craftsmanship.
I see a few different ways that learning can be organised around the wonderland system (apart from development work which will also be covered).
Although it is a fairly big system (with a small core), test automation is almost inexistent. One of my goals would be to start inspecting the system by testing it from within, and see where that leads us. There is a test harness in place, but it hasn't been used much and it would be great to inspect that too.
Another course for experimenting is the building system. Ant scripts exist for the system but dependency management is not explicit. The build is also way too dependent on netbeans.
These are two scenarios that people are quite likely to find in their everyday job. So, what's in it for you? Well, the experience really! :)
Some people might find attractive the fact that some out of the office learning can being organised (to a point) by someone else. I say 'to a point' because, as mentioned earlier, this is a peer to peer experience, I am not an expert, and learning is ultimately the responsibility of the participants themselves.
This is a 'distance learning experience', and I do not expect people meeting face to face, but I do expect meetings avatar to avatar. It is definitely not the same (nowhere near!) but in my opinion is the closest experience to the real thing that I've had so far.
In a nutshell
So, as a summary, if you are interested in learning through technology, be it software development, testing automation, scm, and so on, and you want to do it within an existing system, and more importantly, in a collaboratively, community-based way, please have a look at the course.
Link to the course: http://www.p2pu.org/general/open-wonderland-development-java
Dates: starting on January the 26th (2011)
Pre-requisites: Please read through the sign-up task (main page of the course) before applying.
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