Improving application performance is one of the many projects ongoing for 0.6. One of the steps in this process is to select the appropriate hardware that we will use to run and benchmark our performance tests. Our ballpark was to pick the mid-range setup that a consumer would have bought in 2003.

Windows/Linux: Pentium(R) 4, ~2 GHz, 512 RAM
Mac: G4, ~1GHz, 512 RAM

The 3 machines we have decided to use, along with configuration details are listed below. We realize that these are a bit faster than our original target but feel they are close enough to meet our needs for 0.6.

1. Winxp

   • Processor : Pentium(R) 4
   • CPU : Single CPU, 2.8 GHz
   • Memory : 512 MB RAM
   • OS : Win XP Professional Edition SP2

2. Mac Mini

   • Processor : 1.25 GH G4
   • CPUs : Single CPU, 1.25 GHz
   • OS : Mac OSX 10.4 Tiger
   • Memory : 512 MB DDR SDRAM

3. Linux

   • Processor : Penitum(R) 4
   • CPU : Single CPU, 2.8 GHz
   • Memory : 512 MB RAM
   • OS : Red Hat Linux Fedora Core 4

You can read more about the performance project on the following wiki page (wiki.osafoundation.org/bin/view/Chandler/PerformanceProject)

Highlights

• Chandler milestone 04 planned in 2 weeks depending on sidebar goals
• Decision: No new email support in rest of 0.6 plan (however email bugs will naturally be fixed in bug phases)
• Cosmo release 0.2 planned in six weeks or so to include time for more test coverage and documentation
• OSAF Wiki content reorg planned sometime in next week

Design

• Progress: Contributions to timezone, iCalendar and sharing specs. Prepared presentation on Chandler virtuality. Published performance h/w standards.
• Plans: Triage and dashboard design work. Virtuality presentation and handle feedback from that.

Application

• Progress: Checkin of calendar colors. Some wxMac work submitted to wxWidgets. CPIA Script already at point of being used by QA. Many small bug fixes.
• Plan: Philippe exploring wxWidgets risks and alternatives. Bryan to review another set of 0.6 bugs. Multi-calendar and recurrence work.
• Personnel: Donn vacation this week.

Dev Platform and Repository

• Progress: Big schema API and parcel loading changes. Set API prototype.
• Plans: Implement pull style notification. Work on sidebar integration with Item Collection.
• Personnel: Andi at Europython this week

Services

• Progress: I18n plan accepted and broken down into tasks. Recurrence spec final review called. Timezone spec now in detailed dev planning. Zanshin spec updated & published. Test WebDAV server for Zanshin checked in.
• Plans: Implement i18n and recurrence features. Coordinate timezone-related API issues with Item Collection.

QA (checkpoint build, other status)

• Progress: Tested 20050627 milestone, found 14 new bugs. Regressions outstanding: 5. Number of bugs open to be fixed in 0.6: 397 (down from 399 last week). Updated Silk tests for changes in detail view. Updated calendar test cases.
• Plans: continued performance testing and GUI test automation work.

Build

• Progress: Cosmo maven work. Created mail lists for new svn repositories. Tested Fedora Core.
• Plans: Finish libxml upgrade. Write and test Wiki rename script. Performance Tinderbox setup.

IT

• Progress: Recovered from machine-killing power failures at hosting facility. FC4 added to linuxdev1. Bandwidth behavior analyzed. Set up new interns. Closing about 15 tickets and 2 projects a week.
• Plans: New box for performance tinderbox. Backup procedures review. Web stats for lots of domains. VPN research.

OSAF has four interns on board this summer, and three of them are here already. Here’s a bit of information about each. In the order they started:

Anthony De Franco is working with Aparna Kadakia on QA, including performance tests, regression and automated integration tests. He’s also writing a parcel to view and browse bugs from a Bugzilla database through the Chandler interface. We hooked up with Anthony through LPFI’s IDEAL scholar program. When not at OSAF, Anthony is at UC Berkeley doing Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. In his spare time he plays badminton.

Arel Cordero is working with David Surovell on specialized wxWidgets objects. Also a UC Berkeley student, Arel has combined his major in music (he plays violin) with interests and study in security, GUI design (particularly as it relates to security), and AI. Also, check out the credits on this indy group’s album.

Brendan O’Connor is working with Alec Flett on Chandler’s calendar GUI. For the past two years he’s been a Stanford student and working on an open source research project called Deme. Next year he begins the Master’s program in Symbolic Systems , with a focus in cognitive and social science.

Olivier Giroussens hasn’t arrived yet, but when he does in early July, he’ll be working on QA. Olivier studies in France at the Institut National des Télécommunications and previously did a M.S. in Computer Science at the Université de Nice Sophia-Antipolis. Practicing a different ball/net sport from Anthony, Olivier does a lot of volleyball.

After upgrading to the latest version of libxml2 (2.6.19) I was able to perform a full build of Chandler on FC4. Read the rest of this entry »

In order to handle the Scooby and Cosmo projects, as well as a more natural home for some Chandler-related projects, I’ve been gathering input on how to organize our Wiki content, and made a proposal.

Comments can be added to the proposal Wiki page itself.

Design

• Progress: Sidebar focus issues discussed (fodder for some spec). Sharing and recurrence specs ready for final review.
• Plans: Do visual design review of recent build. Spec reviews planned for timezones.

Applications

• Progress: Reviewed 04 work to make sure schedule still accurate. Drag and Drop framework proposal. CPIA Script proposal.
• Plans: Continue 04 milestone workload for July 13. Work on bug model.
• Personnel: Donn and Alec are back full-time. Brendan O’Connor (summer intern) started.

Repository and Dev Platform

• Progress: Blocks migration to new Schema API up for review. PyICU additions.
• Plans: Repository support for Sets — design and implementation.

Services

• Progress: Recurrence spec done. Timezone spec nearly done. Cert store and acceptance work checked in.
• Plans: Start recurrence and timezeone implementations. Check in sharing work. Final review of I18N spec.

QA

• Progress: Documenting run times for hardhat unit tests. Collaborative QA session on IRC. Tested Chandler sharing with Cosmo+SSL. Tested this week’s checkpoint, found eight bugs. 312 total bugs for 0.6.
• Plans: Large calendar import tests. Participate in visual design review. Work with Donn on CPIA Script.
.

• Progress: Set up linuxdev1 box, fixed some problems running full builds on FC4. Startup unit tests on Tinderbox.
• Plans: Upgrade libxml2. Test tinderbox/svn integration.

Cosmo

• Progress: Implemented MKTICKET and DELTICKET dav methods, defined jcr node type for tickets.
• Plans: Import custom namespaces and nodetypes into Jackrabbit for Cosmo distro, implement ticket authorization.

Community

• Progress: Finalized panel attendance for OSCon
• Plans: Preparing panel presentation for OSCon and other OSCon attendance details. Planning ahead for hosting CalConnect in September.

Here’s an inspiration (and possibly more) for Scooby: Karl O’Keeffe wrote an Ajax Calendar application that looks quite a bit like Apple iCal. Still a toy app, but demonstrates calendar layers, drag and drop and inline editing.

[Via Ajaxian, a very useful blog on all things AJAX]

See this chandlerdb blog entry for more information.

Sleepycat’s Berkeley DB software, which provides the persistence underpinnings to Chandler’s repository, can be configured to use the AES (Rijndael) algorithm to encrypt its data files.

Read the rest of this entry »

OSAF has set up a group blog. It’s intended to be a good place to keep up with project developments without having to make a huge investment of time and effort. The blog will cover all of our projects, including the Chandler Personal Information Manager, the Cosmo sharing/calendaring server, and the Scooby calendaring web application.