OSCon day 3 - Talks

• Keynotes
  • Most interesting stuff I learnt Yahoo is nice, Spike Source also, Sun is not...
  • Take away OS maturing as a business. Don't like the corporate players though...
  • Details
    • State of the OS Community by Nathan
    • CodeZoo from Spike source
    • Launch python.codezoo.com and ruby.codezoo.com
    • O'Reilly radar (O'Reilly is a little bit the Seybold of Open Source)
    • XUL made it to the radar! Hmmm...
    • New presentation of the Open Source Paradigm Shift
    • Will "Web 2.0" be an Open System?
    • Web Services (like GreaseMonkey) using several sources to cross ref data and create new data
    • Fundamental idea : users add value... (see Wiki, Delicious, Findory, even Amazon)
    • Big trend : internet telephony, massive disruption in the next few years (check Asterisk)
    • Big trend : Transformation of Radio and TV
    • Kim Polese (Spike Source) : From DIY to DIT (Do it together) : we should go and check spikesource.com: apparently, there's something to learn and may be to use for us for testing over there.
    • Yahoo - All about how nice they are...
    • Sun - Interview of Jonathan Schwartz. Tough!...


• Application Development With Firefox and Mozilla - Shane Caraveo, ActiveState
  • Most interesting stuff I learnt XUL and the rest of the Mozilla tools are coming together as a real platform. OS X implementation still somewhat buggy though...
  • Take away This was really a talk on Firefox extensions, not XUL. XUL is OK as long as you use the Mozilla widget sets, beyond (creating your custom widgets for instance) is really tricky. Also the OS X implementation uses QuickDraw and is somewhat buggy.
  • Details
    • Use XPIStubs (on Mozdev or ActiveState) as an initial template : gets you something fast, creates the rdf files and xpi for install.
    • Lots of stuff in Firefox / Mozilla tools : huge alphabet soup of stuff...
    • Don't panic : start with XUL and JavaScript only...
    • Check XulPlanet (already in my bookmarks)
    • Learn by picking up things. Look into Firefox for instance.
    • Extensions can : Add new features to existing apps (i.e. Firefox), Customize interfaces for website, Modify and manipulate the DOM in the browser
    • Creating custom widgets is tricky
    • Remote XUL : XUL is sandboxed in that case (avoid GreaseMonkey security issue)
    • Chrome = directory structure of a Mozilla package
    • Event Handling : like HTML (based on W3C DOM Events) + dynamic event listeners
    • Command events : most important events, key can be bound to commands
    • Broadcaster also available
    • RDF and Templates : hard to use but powerful
    • XBL is the widgets component (really? hmm...)
    • XPCOM required but can make a little hairy to track issues between languages (C++, JavaScript and Python if you add PyXPCOM to the mix)
    • XPI is the cross platform installer
    • Dev tools : the biggest issue, no decent IDE or set of tools. Check cview, Venkman... and Komodo.
    • Check Shane's blog to get more interesting info and examples of XUL development


• Embedded Interface Testing with Python: PyUnit and PySerial - Kees Cook, OSDL
  • Most interesting stuff I learnt Go check PyUnit. Python can be used for a lot, a lot of things, in a lot, a lot of different contexts...
  • Take away Really a presentation of Python to control and test serialized devices. Fun but a little out of my scope.
  • Details
    • PyUnit. Is that what we use on Tinderbox?
    • Really about Python on devices...
    • Issue : fragile code, needed regression testing, portability, flexibility
    • Solution : Python (PySerial in particular see pyserial.sourceforge.net)
    • Testing with PyUnit : used unittest.TestCase(), TestSuite() and TestRunner()


• Lunch : Discussion with David Ascher (ActiveState) on XUL
  • Most interesting stuff I learnt Inconsistency of the plug-in API between platforms. The toolkit is great for apps that do a lots of web stuff though, something that should apply to Chandler.
  • Take away XUL has its issues for sure but its workable. One of the hardest thing is to get the Mozilla folks interested in fixing some of the problems...
  • Details
    • XUL good if you do lots of things with the web. Excellent toolkit coming with XUL there.
    • On UI, issues on Mac (serious), big issues with defining custom widgets, huge issues if you need a fix in some arcane C/C++ part of the Mozilla code pile.
    • Also Mozilla plug in API inconsistencies between platforms, Mac vs Windows vs Linux. (note : this was confirmed later in the afternoon on the booth by one of the Komodo developer)
    • Think Chandler would be a good case of applicability of XUL though.
    • Encourages us to perform some prototyping and push a little bit the enveloppe here.


• The Evolution of Web Application Architectures - Craig McClanahan
  • Most interesting stuff I learnt Struts rules!... as long as you like Java, JSP, etc...
  • Take away Really a pep talk on Struts, assumes JSP as the server side standard (what about PHP? Rails?). Web Apps seen from the server side only. A very Sun centric view IMHO...
  • Details
    • Web Tier API: servlet (96), JSP (99)
    • Abstract the HTTP request / response, add a concept to deal with statelessness
    • Servlet API: all in Java, try to abstract custom tags but still some intermixing issues
    • Tried to address the issue from a general framework standpoint
    • Compared and contrast Struts with WebWork, Spring MVC and a couple of others
    • All frameworks like the MVC architecture but it's really a front controller pattern
    • Support for Static and Dynamic Markup (Struts supports the later with Tiles)
    • Issues to implement the View states (elements, conversion and validation)
    • Request to Business Logic mapping
    • Resource Access
    • Page Navigation
    • Finally some talk on Beehive (from the Apache group), Cocoon and Shale


• Ways Geeks Are Making Waves (A Pythonic Perspective) - Kirby Urner
  • Most interesting stuff I learnt None...
  • Take away Zippo...
  • Details
    • It's a about Python... no wait... it's about Buck Fuller... no, no... I mean... o well...
    • Impossible to summarize this rambling semi interesting geek talk...


• Build Your Own Chandler Parcel - Ted Leung
  • Most interesting stuff I learnt People like Chandler!... :)
  • Take away Small crowd (15 to 20 people) but interested and participating.
  • Questions from the floor
    • Is OSAF using it? We will in September. When the dogfood comes down, we'll see how it tastes.
    • Python will get into loading errors? We have to be careful in how we load components.
    • Parcels on the Wiki? No, but they are accessible on SVN or downloading the recent weekly build.


• Implementing CalDAV, a New Standard for Sharing Calendar Information Over the Internet and BOF - Mitchell Baker, Mike Douglass, Brian Moseley, Brian Moseley, Sheila Mooney
  • Most interesting stuff I learnt Huge interest, immediate needs to fill. Solving the scheduling headaches is the killer app. This implies sharing, resource definition, free-busy, invite and notifications. Big problems, huge interests in a very wide set of vertical markets (schools, HiEd, concert hall, shipping, any business with resource scheduling requirements).
  • Take away Room was packed full! Lots of interest in CalDAV, lots of high end needs.
  • Details
    • Lots of people in this talk : full house!
    • Brian presented Cosmo : great job, people were impressed to see an Open Source implementation already that advanced.
    • Mike Douglass presented the case from the HiEd viewpoint, why CalDAV is interesting for them, interop being the most important point. Problem to solve : room scheduling. They use a Java calendaring client.
    • Novell presented Hula. Completely web based client.
    • Dan Mosedale presented the Mozilla calendar project (that was Lighting, not Sunbird). Not very polished yet but integrated in Thunderbird.
    • Sheila made her demo (on Mac!) and it worked! Got a couple of "Oh Ah" demoing the sharing feature.
    • Announcing Calconnect to be hosted by OSAF in September
    • CalDAV for Dummies : CalDAV = iCalendar on WebDAV
    • People want to tie in the rest of their CMS (Content Management System)
    • Opportunity to link back with hCalendar
    • Free busy permission can be implemented as a report on a CalDAV server
    • Interest in devices. Check the Calendar Swamp blog.
    • Special needs like concert hall, super heavy calendaring use