From: Michal Kleczek on
Patricia Shanahan wrote:

> I'm looking for an open source project to join. I want to get back to
> the challenge of non-trivial programming. After years of solo work on my
> dissertation research, I would like to be part of a team. Also, just
> doing programming exercises to keep my hand in seems a waste of my skills.
>
> My main requirement is an active project, with a team that works
> together, and multiple users outside the team. I am willing learn any
> required programming languages or libraries, though I am currently most
> fluent in Java.
>
> I have 32 years experience in the computer industry, including work on
> compilers, operating systems, and multiprocessor computer architecture.
> I completed my Ph.D. in computer science at UCSD last December, with a
> 4.0 GPA on the coursework.
>
> I would contribute to a suitable project in whatever way would be most
> useful, including programming and bug fixing, but the more technical
> challenge the better.
>
> Any recommendations?
>

I would suggest Apache River (former Sun's Jini).

--
Michal
From: Tom Anderson on
On Tue, 22 Jun 2010, Lew wrote:

> tm wrote:
>
>> Be prepared to get stiff opposition when you decide for Seed7. New
>> programming languages start in a hostile world and fans of existing
>> programming languages fight against it from the first announcement.
>
> I don't recall that happening with FORTRAN, COBOL, BASIC, C, C++, C# or
> Java.
>
> Nor, for that matter, with Forth or LISP.

You should get your memory checked out. C++ people were knocking Java
right from the get-go.

Also, FORTRAN and LISP kind of had it easy, given that there weren't
really any programming languages around when they came along.

tom

--
We don't contact anybody or seek anybody's permission for what we do. Even
if it's impersonating postal employees. -- Birdstuff
From: Arne Vajhøj on
On 22-06-2010 04:19, Pascal J. Bourguignon wrote:
> "Alf P. Steinbach /Usenet"<alf.p.steinbach+usenet(a)gmail.com> writes:
>> * Patricia Shanahan, on 21.06.2010 21:22:
>>> Simon Brooke wrote:
>>>> On Mon, 21 Jun 2010 08:44:58 -0700, Patricia Shanahan wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> I'm looking for an open source project to join. I want to get back to
>>>>> the challenge of non-trivial programming. After years of solo work on my
>>>>> dissertation research, I would like to be part of a team. Also, just
>>>>> doing programming exercises to keep my hand in seems a waste of my
>>>>> skills.
>>
>> With Thunderbird 3.0 the Mozilla folks introduced a lot of undesirable
>> functionality, in particular messing up quoting. When you quote source
>> code, and the original message has "flowed" text format (this is where
>> a space at the end of line indicates a continuing paragraph), then the
>> beast now collapses every sequence of spaces to a single space, except
>> indentation, which it removes completely. It's merely Very Bad for
>> quoting C++. It's completely unaccceptable for quoting Python, where
>> indentation is significant.
>
> Modify python to remove the signifiance of spaces. One good solution
> would be to use parentheses.

Then it would not be Python.

(I am rather sure that the BDFL will not approve the change)

Arne

From: Lew on
Lew wrote:
>> I don't recall [fans of existing programming languages fighting
>> against it] happening with FORTRAN, COBOL, BASIC, C, C++, C# or Java.
>>
>> Nor, for that matter, with Forth or LISP.

Tom Anderson wrote:
> You should get your memory checked out. C++ people were knocking Java
> right from the get-go.

My memory is fine. Undoubtedly I just hung around different C++ programmers
from those you did. That said, I was speaking in broad generalities,
naturally. Of course some people fight against every new thing. I was
referring to a general resistance, which was notably absent in the instances I
cited. At least to my own experience.

Isn't it true that nearly all the early adopters of Java had experience in C
and C++? I came from a background of working in C and C++ when I began in
Java, and for a few years there was working in both C++ and Java, often in the
same job. If Java didn't appeal broadly to C and C++ practitioners, it would
not have gained popularity with the rapidity and reach that it did.

For a C++ programmer to knock Java makes about as much sense as for a Java
programmer to knock, oh, say, Groovy or Scala. Not that I'm familiar with
those latter from my own use, but I certainly believe the credible people who
sing the praises of those languages. Nor that that prevents small-minded
people from excoriating new things.

My own progression from Fortran to C to C++ to Java over my career is not all
that unusual for someone who stays a programmer long enough. If you shut
yourself off from new ideas from some bizarre pseudo-religious worship of the
familiar, you risk greatly losing the practical advantages and income
opportunities that arise from advances in the art.

I'm sure Seed7 is a fine language, and who knows? It might even gain some
traction in the industry. If it doesn't, then its proponents no doubt will
whine that it's because people are small minded and resist new ideas. It
certainly would never be because it lacks sufficient advantage to gain a large
following.

--
Lew
From: Graham Jones on

"Patricia Shanahan" <pats(a)acm.org> wrote in message
news:g5KdnTevyoWfFILRnZ2dnUVZ_jqdnZ2d(a)earthlink.com...
> I'm looking for an open source project to join. I want to get back to
> the challenge of non-trivial programming. After years of solo work on my
> dissertation research, I would like to be part of a team. Also, just
> doing programming exercises to keep my hand in seems a waste of my skills.
>
> My main requirement is an active project, with a team that works
> together, and multiple users outside the team. I am willing learn any
> required programming languages or libraries, though I am currently most
> fluent in Java.
>
> I have 32 years experience in the computer industry, including work on
> compilers, operating systems, and multiprocessor computer architecture.
> I completed my Ph.D. in computer science at UCSD last December, with a
> 4.0 GPA on the coursework.
>
> I would contribute to a suitable project in whatever way would be most
> useful, including programming and bug fixing, but the more technical
> challenge the better.
>
> Any recommendations?
>

The phylogenetic analysis program BEAST might interest you. It is written
mostly in Java with some bits in C. I guess you'd need to learn some
statistics and some biology. I don't know if they are actively looking for
extra help right now, but they have been in the recent past.

http://beast.bio.ed.ac.uk/Main_Page

http://code.google.com/p/beast-mcmc/


Graham