[burpg] Re: Ground Software development

  • From: "Kelley, Andrew, Todd" <atkelley@xxxxxx>
  • To: "burpg@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <burpg@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Mon, 23 Jun 2014 19:01:55 +0000

See my responses below in red.


__________________

Drew Kelley


________________________________
From: burpg-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [burpg-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] on behalf of 
Mehmet Akbulut [meak@xxxxxx]
Sent: Monday, June 23, 2014 2:23 PM
To: burpg@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [burpg] Re: Ground Software development

Here is my 5 cents as an ex-IT person:

- DreamSpark gives Visual Studio Pro free of charge to all students. You could 
be an art major and they wouldn't care. Just to make sure, I tried getting it 
today and they don't care about what classes you are taking or what your major 
is. All you need to be is a student which we all are.
Cool! Didn't know that.

- Java runs on JVM, Java Virtual Machine, which makes it cross-platform. 
Brandon was probably referring to this. Just because it is a VM, doesn't 
necessarily mean it will be slow.
Correct.

- I hate C# but since we already have a working system in C# and personnel 
experienced in that, we should stick with it and improve.
Not necessarily. Experience with a particular language doesn't necessarily mean 
it's the best option. The really valuable stuff gained from the previous 
software is the design experience: how to do multi-threaded networks, data 
logging, board comms, etc. True, getting some experience with particular 
libraries makes things easier going forward but the java libraries are similar 
and in some ways, better.

- C# can be made cross-platform through Mono. We can have the control software 
on our iPhones and Androids if we wanted. Regardless, I don't think 
cross-platform compatibility should be a selling point for us.
Hell no. Talk about buggy?

If we use Java, we should just go for OpenMCT.
Lawl.

On Mon, Jun 23, 2014 at 12:29 PM, Dean De Carli 
<ddecarli@xxxxxx<mailto:ddecarli@xxxxxx>> wrote:

Hey Linux is my preferred environment by the way.

On Jun 23, 2014 12:24 PM, "Jiehong Brandon Chung" 
<jbxchung@xxxxxx<mailto:jbxchung@xxxxxx>> wrote:
Just to clarify - I'm not saying Java isn't a good language to use, I'm just 
saying since we've already used C# I think the advantage of working with 
something we have experience with outweighs the advantage of cross-platform 
compatibility, which I'm not sure we even need (unless we aren't using a 
Windows machine to run it, or we have an influx of developers who don't have 
Windows machines).


On Mon, Jun 23, 2014 at 11:17 AM, Armor Harris 
<armorharris@xxxxxxxxx<mailto:armorharris@xxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
Bradon makes a good point though. Just because other people use Java doesn't 
mean that we have to. We want to avoid re-inventing the wheel on as much as 
possible.


On Mon, Jun 23, 2014 at 8:09 AM, Dean De Carli 
<ddecarli@xxxxxx<mailto:ddecarli@xxxxxx>> wrote:
Let's save the discussions for the PDR tonight, and also keep in mind that the 
mission control software that NASA uses is written is Java and uses swing.

https://sites.google.com/site/openmct/

Dean A. De Carli
Boston University
Electrical Engineering 2016

BU EDF Student Technician
BU SEDS President
BU AIAA Vice President
Boston University Rocket Propulsion Group Systems Integration and Electronics 
Lead Engineer


On Mon, Jun 23, 2014 at 10:33 AM, Jiehong Brandon Chung 
<jbxchung@xxxxxx<mailto:jbxchung@xxxxxx>> wrote:
I didn't realize we had a cross-platform compatibility issue before, since all 
of us had Windows machines anyway. And a full version of Visual Studio is free 
via Dreamspark, which we all have access to as BU students. Also correct me if 
I'm wrong here but wouldn't running a virtual machine to run this program be 
more resource intensive, which is something we had an issue with when we were 
working with that Toshiba we used for the on-site system?
And from a development standpoint, I feel like there'd be quite a learning 
curve with the Swing framework (I'm assuming that's what you had in mind?). 
Since I've been working with .NET in C# for a few years, and since a lot of the 
things we learned from building the MkIV software would be transferrable, I 
think development would go more quickly through that route. Also, if the 
majority of new developers have to learn one framework or the other anyway, I 
think it would be useful to have someone as a reference to ask questions to. 
Unless you or someone you had in mind is already comfortable with Swing and can 
take that role.
Basically my vote is that unless our end product is going to be run on a 
Mac/Linux machine, or we have a lot of developers who don't have Windows 
machines, we should build this in C# with the .NET framework.

- Brandon


On Sun, Jun 22, 2014 at 9:26 PM, Kelley, Andrew, Todd 
<atkelley@xxxxxx<mailto:atkelley@xxxxxx>> wrote:
That’s a good question. Mainly because Java supports cross-platform 
compatibility. It’s risky being tied down to any given operating system or 
computer when you have something on the critical path. Java is also completely 
open source and doesn’t require Visual Studio to edit/compile making it 
somewhat more flexible and lighter weight. It also allows Mac/Linux users to 
work on the project.

-Drew


From: burpg-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:burpg-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> 
[mailto:burpg-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:burpg-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>] On 
Behalf Of Jiehong Brandon Chung
Sent: Sunday, June 22, 2014 5:44 PM
To: burpg@xxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:burpg@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [burpg] Re: Ground Software development

Just wondering, why are we switching to Java?

- Brandon

On Sun, Jun 22, 2014 at 7:40 AM, Zhenjie Ruan 
<zhenjier@xxxxxx<mailto:zhenjier@xxxxxx>> wrote:
I'm interested. When do you plan to start?

-Jason

On Sun, Jun 22, 2014 at 5:06 PM, Kelley, Andrew, Todd 
<atkelley@xxxxxx<mailto:atkelley@xxxxxx>> wrote:
Ok, well I’ve gotten 2 responses. I was hoping for more like 6-8 (though I 
screwed up and didn’t actually send the email until 5 hours after I’d typed 
it…). Anyone who’s interested should hang around after the Mk. V PDR that’s 
taking place on Monday at 9PM ET/6PM PT and we’ll discuss. This is definitely 
going to be an exciting project (challenging… but exciting) and it’s easiest to 
get in now before too much work has been done.

-Drew

From: burpg-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:burpg-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> 
[mailto:burpg-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:burpg-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>] On 
Behalf Of Kelley, Andrew, Todd
Sent: Saturday, June 21, 2014 6:49 PM
To: burpg@xxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:burpg@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [burpg] Ground Software development

I’m looking for some folks who would be interested in working with me on the 
newest revision of the ground control software – IRIS. We had a lot of success 
with the software work that was done last year but there’s still a lot to be 
done in terms of robustness, cross-platform compatibility, and customizable 
functionality.

The new version, IRIS (which stands for IntraRange Information System) will be 
a Java based system with 2 parts (like this years): Olympus (the rocket-side 
data collection server), and Gaia (the GUI and  control side). I know how I 
want to go about the development of the system as a whole from functionality 
and organizational standpoints but it’s going to take quite a lot of work to 
actually implement it and implement it properly. If you’re interested, let me 
know directly (don’t respond directly to this email, send me an email at 
atkelley@xxxxxx<mailto:atkelley@xxxxxx>. Freelists is a little too slow). I 
would like to setup a meeting as soon as possible (ideally tomorrow) with 
anyone interested in working on it. It’s ok if you don’t know much (or any) 
Java. If you’ve done any work with C/C++ or C# then it’ll be a quick study and 
if not, then no better time to learn than right now.

Just a disclaimer: This will be a tremendous undertaking in terms of software. 
I’d imagine it will take somewhere between 1 and 2 months for us to get this to 
a state where all the systems have at least preliminary functionality, so be 
ready to work please. And work a lot.

-Drew

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