World Wind Java Closed Alpha Testing
Written by Chad on January 30th, 2007want to be an alpha tester for World Wind Java? Then head over here and tell me WHY I should pick you to sent to the NASA Project Manager as a choice for the closed alpha testing.
This is for MAJOR bug hunting, so would prefer people that have Java development experience. I will pick 10 to 15 people to sent up the line to have the 10 or so picked from for testing. You have to post a reason WHY you should be picked though.
Once the Alpha bug hunt is done, the “everyone can try” betas will come out.
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I have already posted this to forum, but I must post it here too, because this has really p*ssed me off:
Closed testing cycle? Are you kidding? I am really disappointed by NASA. Does opensource philosophy tells anything to you? You should read The Cathedral and the Bazaar (http://www.catb.org/~esr/writings/cathedral-bazaar/) by Eric S. Raymond. There are no excuses for such a stupid closed development model. I am going back to WW2D, shame on NASA.
Even if NASA have some contracts with sponsors of WWJ, this doesn’t mean that they can’t open Subversion repository only for reading, so _everyone_ can get latest sources. This behaviour what has NASA shown is highly unfriendly to opensource community.
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Bad enough to spam the forums with your uninformed trite.. now you spam here.
You have spoken like someone that has no clue what is going on. Become informed FIRST then post.
Closed will only be for a short while to trackdown and hammer out the most bugs we can. The more specialized the bug hunters, the better the bug reports, the faster they get fixed.
Before JavaONE the public betas will come out, and most likely at the time the source code will be copied to the sourceforge NASA SVN at that time.
There, I have saved you some troble with having to use you brain and read and think at the same time.
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Chad,
Closed development can produce good software, just as open development can produce crap. It all depends on the management of the project. Still, you can’t deny that closed development can have a chilling effect on the software community. The Zotero project (new Endnote-killer in the Digital Humanities world) is experiencing exactly this kind of unrest.
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Well, once past this initial bug hunt, it should work more like the Linux kernel development. The open side anyone can do anything too and the closed, controlled core. You would have to have a code review to get changes into the code code.
I think what people keep forgetting, with World Wind at least, is that we are seconday users. The need for security is a requirement of the powers that are funding it.
If people are not comfortable with that, you can always branch off and create your own version of World Wind Java. Or just use the .Net version and help out with porting it to Mono (it 90% works, just the DX is all that is left to deal with I think).
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