[astro] Re: Milkyway code license and build system

[Thibaut VARENE]

Thanks for your reply. And thanks a lot for opening the source code,
not that many BOINC projects take such an open stance!

Clarifying the code license is a really important step if you want
other people to touch the code. That aside, I can already tell you
that the code as is behaves rather well on hppa-linux and
ia64-linux[0] (save for some FPU assist faults on IA64, which happen
under certain conditions on that platform[1]), and considering these
are rather peculiar architectures in many (annoying) ways, it's a good
thing :)

I've also successfully built the code on alpha-linux (though not
tested the result yet) and I could probably try powerpc-linux as well
(though you already support powerpc-darwin so it should be a no
brainer).

As for the build system, I've already proposed some changes (I suppose
you found my post on the forum), I'd be glad to have your opinion on
them, and I might try to refine the makefile a bit further.

If for some reason you want access to hppa-linux/ia64-linux machines,
I manage a test cluster for developers' use[2], so it can easily be
arranged.

One last word about the project: since you will inevitably have bogus
results coming from mod'ed apps, you could probably to turn the
initial replication and min quorum of each WU to at least 2 (that's
what SETI does for instance). Maybe you already planned on doing so,
or maybe you're using other means to assert the validity of your
results, though :)

Greetings,
Thibaut

[0] http://milkyway.cs.rpi.edu/milkyway/hosts_user.php?userid=22797
[1] http://h21007.www2.hp.com/portal/site/dspp/menuitem.863c3e4cbcdc3f3515b49c108973a801?ciid=62080055abe021100055abe02110275d6e10RCRD
[2] http://www.fr.parisc-linux.org/cluster.html

On Sat, Jan 17, 2009 at 7:13 PM, Travis Desell <deselt at cs.rpi.edu> wrote:
> We've decided to open source the code -- but I'm not sure if we have any
> liscence in place on it yet.  Any help in developing the app and making it
> better is definitely appreciated, and as we get closer to making the project
> beta, this would be great.
>
> --Travis
>
> Thibaut VARENE wrote:
>>
>> Hi,
>>
>> I'm sending you this quick message because I didn't hear back from you
>> on the message I sent you back in Dec 2008 and on my forum posts
>> (http://milkyway.cs.rpi.edu/milkyway/forum_user_posts.php?userid=22797)
>>
>> I would like to offer some help (I have had some experience in porting
>> the SETI Classic client to some linux architectures):
>>
>> I've already proposed in one of my posts some improvements to the
>> make.linux (which, far from being perfect, allow for a compilation on
>> any linux platform, as far as I could test); but more to the point, I
>> would like to know whether the code is released under an open source
>> license.
>>
>> As a matter of fact, I am a Debian Developer as well and could easily
>> make a Debian package of your application (which would end up in most
>> Debian derivatives, including Ubuntu) but in order to do so I need a
>> clear statement about the code licensing. Practically speaking,
>> without any clue as to the licensing, the code is assumed to be "all
>> rights reserved" and thus not open source.
>>
>> Packaging the app could bring you some benefits (and arguably some
>> drawbacks as well) such as a large potential user base using the same
>> known binary app and the ability to test your code against many
>> different architectures. Another benefit (which could also be a
>> drawback) is that more people are likely to look into the code and
>> might help improving it further. I for one would totally help
>> improving it to the best of my knowledge, but I'd rather not touch it
>> until the licensing is clarified.
>>
>> I hope this helps,
>>
>> --
>> Thibaut Varene
>> http://www.parisc-linux.org/~varenet/
>>
>
> --
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Travis Desell
> <deselt @ cs.rpi.edu>
> 1-518-878-7424
> Worldwide Computing Laboratory ( http://wcl.cs.rpi.edu/ )
> MilkyWay at Home ( http://milkyway.cs.rpi.edu/ )
> Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 110 8th Street, Troy NY 12180, USA
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>



-- 
Thibaut VARENE
http://www.parisc-linux.org/~varenet/