My goal for today is to learn how to use and implement java-based open source systems, and to have a firm idea of how hard or easy is it to gain the “Three Prime Directives” for Java-based Open Source Software Engineering. The “Three Prime Directives” are: 1. the system successfully accomplishes a useful task, 2. an external user can successfully install and use the system, 3. an external developer can successfully understand and enhance the system.
For my java-based open source project, I chose ‘Art of Illusion.’ The project page from SourceForge.net is http://sourceforge.net/projects/aoi; the site for this program is http://www.artofillusion.org. Art of Illusion project is a simple program that gives users the ability of designing professional looking 3-D graphic models, textures, and animation. The developers of this project let users learn its features fast but still providing advanced tools for experienced graphic users to create high-quality arts.
Prime Directive 1: the system successfully accomplishes a useful task.
Yes, it does accomplish a useful task – designing graphic artworks. A user can shell out hundreds of dollars to buy a program that does the same thing, but the user can use this and still get the same results if it is done using the correct tools. The task for the project was to give users a fast way to learn how to design 3-D artwork without the consuming a lot of time like in a much bigger program. I tried out the program since I am into 3-d rendering and animation, it give me some decent artwork if I had to use it for a presentation. It was fast to learn for me to create a 3-D box, I can use that make a row of buildings if I wanted to.
Prime Directive 2: an external user can successfully install and use the system.
Yes, a user can successfully install and use the system. The installing part was really simple; almost anyone who has basic computer skills can do it. The project included an external installer that the user uses to install the program. Another thing is that the external installer creates an external uninstaller for users who wants to get rid of it. The manual (that does not come with the package but have to download it separate) gives a nice tutorial on what artwork I wanted to do. It has images to guide me each step of the way, so I am using the correct tools for designing my artwork. The table of contents is well put out for specific design. The manual was not included with the package, which is kind of bad since the manual should have been with the package. Users can get the manual by going to their website (www.artofillusions.) to view the online version or download the documents onto their computers.
Prime Directive 3: an external developer can successfully understand and enhance the system.
An external develop can somewhat understand and enhance the system. I think the comments in the source files was not a great help, some of them were only one sentence long which I think did not suffice what a function was doing. There is a developer’s manual for people who want to enhance the system, but it was not included with the source files. Developers have to go to the art of illusion website to obtain the manual. I think the manual give a detailed tutorial for each class or material plug-ins to offset the comments in the source files. I think an external developer still have to contact the system developers for a successful understanding and enhance the system. So I conclude that this system did not successfully fulfill prime directive #3.
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