FOSSEng Episode Something: A New Hope

It's alive.

Unlike everything else I have worked on so far in this course, getting everything set up to work has been very simple. Austin created a new plugin through Atom, which is beautifully simple, and put it in a repository on GitHub. Wonderful.

One of the major struggles that OpenMRS presented to us was installation. Installation. We couldn't even get the thing running to begin with for quite a while, and when we did we realized that we were using the wrong version of the system to do the work we intended to do.

Atom, on the other hand, is a breeze. It is a wonderful piece of software, and we are all happy to be taking our first steps in our work with the Transterpreter in something so nice to work with.

Moving Forward

At first we thought that the plugin would be very simple. We came to realize, however, that the Transterpreter is a bit more complicated than we thought. This should be alright though, as Dr. Jadud has been heavily involved in its development and will hopefully be able to provide us with some assistance.

We'll see how it goes. Wish us luck.

-Craig

The Ol' Switcheroo

The tables turned truly this time.

Alliteration is cool. Like bow-ties and fezzes...

Anyways, back to it. As I was saying, there have been some big changes recently. 

Following an uneventful 'SPRANG BREAK' there was a total dissolution of the Software Engineering class' OpenMRS team. We have unanimously decided that it is our best interests to pursue work in other projects for the duration of the term.

I am elated.

The Future

The group has split and taken several different paths. Some of us are joining existing groups that have already been working on their project.

Others of us have chosen differently.

Introducing...The Transterpreter

Sounds very exciting, right? This project is somewhat beyond my understanding in its totality at the moment, however it may be summed up in one word: Parallel. It is a piece of software that allows for concurrency on platforms such as the Arduino.

Don't expect too much depth here. This is about all I have in memory from class discussions on Monday. Perhaps I should have done this sooner. Perhaps.

As a first step, we are pursuing the development of an Atom plugin for the Transterpreter. Atom is pretty sweet, and we are looking forward to exploring this space and digging deeper.

-Craig

P.S. Where are my manners? This royal 'we' I have been using throughout consists of Zach Ball, Austin Farmer, and myself. 

The Rut

Hail.

I mentioned to Austin that I have been contemplating switching projects. He opposed. I probably won't be switching.

Curse you, Austin.

OpenMRS Stuff

I have managed to (finally) put together a working environment. In the words of fictional guitarist Toki Wartooth, in his infinite wisdom, "Woweee." This is one of the reasons that I have moved away from the thought of switching. 

I am now in a place to finally begin work on things, and it feels good.

Now I am working on properly installing and tinkering with the XForms module so that I can work on the issue that David and I identified as a first step into working on OpenMRS. It seems to be a baby bug, and a fairly old one at that, but it should help us to get our feet wet.

Unfortunately, I can't seem to figure out how to install modules at the moment, but if I can get that squared away then we will be good to go.

Maybe.

-Craig