Difference between revisions of "Open source and I"

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open source development and I go quite a way back.  All the way to 1995 when I uploaded "WFDOS" to a [http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Compuserve Compuserve] area or forum or whatever they were called. WFDOS is a utility for integrating DOS-tools with IBMs Workframe/2, part of the VisualAge C++ suite of tools. If you google it,  
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open source and I go quite a way back.  All the way back to 1995 when I uploaded "WFDOS" to a [http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Compuserve Compuserve] area or forum or whatever they were called. WFDOS is a utility for integrating DOS-tools for use within IBMs Workframe/2, part of the VisualAge C++ suite of tools. If you google it,  
 
you'll quite likely come across references or maybe even a download. I know I have seen it listed on sites that collect OS/2 tools and utilities.  
 
you'll quite likely come across references or maybe even a download. I know I have seen it listed on sites that collect OS/2 tools and utilities.  
  
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Going even further back to the 80s, I suspect my first encounter with "open" source was MVS 3.8 on microfiche or tape and later on JES/328X, an RJE spooler for MVS, on paper. I think I might even still have the JES328X source code somewhere up on the attic.  
+
Going even further back to the 80s, I suspect my first encounter with "open" source was MVS 3.8 on microfiche or tape and later on JES/328X, an RJE spooler for MVS, on paper. I think I might even still have the JES328X source code somewhere up in the attic.  
  
 
I was probably a little late getting on the Linux bandwagon, perhaps because I was a keen OS/2 developer at home, and writing IBM mainframe  
 
I was probably a little late getting on the Linux bandwagon, perhaps because I was a keen OS/2 developer at home, and writing IBM mainframe  
 
system software in the office. My focus was first turned towards Unix (HP-UX, AIX) in the mid-90s.  I purchased my first copy of SuSE Linux, version 4.4.1, around 1996 I think.  I remember Linux kernel 1.3 and that 2.0 was a big step forward. One of my significant achievements around 1998/1999 was getting an ancient 486DX2 office desktop set up in cupboard, running our home internet gateway/firewall, kernel 2.0.36.  
 
system software in the office. My focus was first turned towards Unix (HP-UX, AIX) in the mid-90s.  I purchased my first copy of SuSE Linux, version 4.4.1, around 1996 I think.  I remember Linux kernel 1.3 and that 2.0 was a big step forward. One of my significant achievements around 1998/1999 was getting an ancient 486DX2 office desktop set up in cupboard, running our home internet gateway/firewall, kernel 2.0.36.  
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 +
The following is a list of my open source contributions, in no particular order:
  
 
* dosemu
 
* dosemu
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* etherboot
+
 
 +
This goes back to 2001/2002 or thereabouts - I honestly cannot remember what I wrote for dosemu, but I suspect you'll
 +
find my name in the code somewhere.
 +
 
 +
* [http://www.clamav.net clamav]
 +
 
 +
In 2005, I wrote a patch to make the freshclam daemon more resilient with respect to poorly written OnError and OnUpdate scripts.  Later, I wrote a 2nd patch to introduce
 +
the OnOutdatedExecute option.
 +
 
 +
* bwclamd: a reworked clamd. work in progress. Locally in production, but not yet published.
 +
 
 +
* [http://etherboot.org/ etherboot]
 +
 
 +
To be honest, I think I only wrote one, maybe two patches, certainly nothing major. Something about the driver(s) for 3c509 or 3c515 comes to mind, but it's
 +
really not very significant.
 +
 
 
* hercules-390
 
* hercules-390
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* sapdb
+
 
 +
I contributed support for several IEEE-754 floating point instructions, primarily to enable running a Java virtual machine on Linux-390. I was working for BEA systems at the time,
 +
and running/demoing BEA Weblogic (and associated products) on Linux-390 was one of my key responsibilities.
 +
 
 +
* SAPDB
 +
 
 +
I honestly cannot remember how I got involved in this, but SAPDB was released as open source by SAP AG in 2000 or thereabouts. I can't remember why, but I knew that SAPDB used to be called Adabas,
 +
and used to run on MVS. The challenge of getting it build and run on Linux-390 (using Hercules-390) was just too much of a temptation.
 +
 
 
* linux kernel
 
* linux kernel
 +
 +
A two line change to provide AHCI support for 88se9125. Back in 2002 or 2003, I also wrote a driver for flashing some AMD serial EEPROM, but I never published it.
 +
 
* nasm
 
* nasm
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* analog
+
 
 +
Whilst writing some assembler code for Linux, I spotted a bug in the 64-bit stack generation code, and wrote a patch.
 +
Later on I upgraded the openSUSE nasm package.
 +
 
 +
* [http://analog.cx/ analog] (weblog analyzer).
 +
 
 +
I added support for XML output.
 +
 
 
* PMMail
 
* PMMail
  
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PMMail used to be my email client on OS/2, and wrote a couple of scripts for miscellaneous PMMail maintenance.
  
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== Packaging ==
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* openSUSE stuff
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Starting sometime early-to-mid 2011, I started getting involved in packaging software for openSUSE.  My first "project" was upgrading nasm such that a patch I had submitted earlier would be automatically included.
+
Apart from bug reports and mailing lists, I don't actually contribute a lot to openSUSE, but since mid-2011, I have started
 +
fixing or upgrading the odd package:
 +
**nasm - upgrade to latest version.
 +
**jfsutils - upgrade to latest version.
 +
**lilo - upgrade to latest version.
 +
**Yast2::iSCSI - a fix of a very minor problem that nonetheless prevented iSCSI from working in openSUSE.

Latest revision as of 17:49, 4 January 2020

open source and I go quite a way back. All the way back to 1995 when I uploaded "WFDOS" to a Compuserve area or forum or whatever they were called. WFDOS is a utility for integrating DOS-tools for use within IBMs Workframe/2, part of the VisualAge C++ suite of tools. If you google it, you'll quite likely come across references or maybe even a download. I know I have seen it listed on sites that collect OS/2 tools and utilities.

Going even further back to the 80s, I suspect my first encounter with "open" source was MVS 3.8 on microfiche or tape and later on JES/328X, an RJE spooler for MVS, on paper. I think I might even still have the JES328X source code somewhere up in the attic.

I was probably a little late getting on the Linux bandwagon, perhaps because I was a keen OS/2 developer at home, and writing IBM mainframe system software in the office. My focus was first turned towards Unix (HP-UX, AIX) in the mid-90s. I purchased my first copy of SuSE Linux, version 4.4.1, around 1996 I think. I remember Linux kernel 1.3 and that 2.0 was a big step forward. One of my significant achievements around 1998/1999 was getting an ancient 486DX2 office desktop set up in cupboard, running our home internet gateway/firewall, kernel 2.0.36.

The following is a list of my open source contributions, in no particular order:

  • dosemu

This goes back to 2001/2002 or thereabouts - I honestly cannot remember what I wrote for dosemu, but I suspect you'll find my name in the code somewhere.

In 2005, I wrote a patch to make the freshclam daemon more resilient with respect to poorly written OnError and OnUpdate scripts. Later, I wrote a 2nd patch to introduce the OnOutdatedExecute option.

  • bwclamd: a reworked clamd. work in progress. Locally in production, but not yet published.

To be honest, I think I only wrote one, maybe two patches, certainly nothing major. Something about the driver(s) for 3c509 or 3c515 comes to mind, but it's really not very significant.

  • hercules-390

I contributed support for several IEEE-754 floating point instructions, primarily to enable running a Java virtual machine on Linux-390. I was working for BEA systems at the time, and running/demoing BEA Weblogic (and associated products) on Linux-390 was one of my key responsibilities.

  • SAPDB

I honestly cannot remember how I got involved in this, but SAPDB was released as open source by SAP AG in 2000 or thereabouts. I can't remember why, but I knew that SAPDB used to be called Adabas, and used to run on MVS. The challenge of getting it build and run on Linux-390 (using Hercules-390) was just too much of a temptation.

  • linux kernel

A two line change to provide AHCI support for 88se9125. Back in 2002 or 2003, I also wrote a driver for flashing some AMD serial EEPROM, but I never published it.

  • nasm

Whilst writing some assembler code for Linux, I spotted a bug in the 64-bit stack generation code, and wrote a patch. Later on I upgraded the openSUSE nasm package.

I added support for XML output.

  • PMMail

PMMail used to be my email client on OS/2, and wrote a couple of scripts for miscellaneous PMMail maintenance.

  • openSUSE stuff

Apart from bug reports and mailing lists, I don't actually contribute a lot to openSUSE, but since mid-2011, I have started fixing or upgrading the odd package:

    • nasm - upgrade to latest version.
    • jfsutils - upgrade to latest version.
    • lilo - upgrade to latest version.
    • Yast2::iSCSI - a fix of a very minor problem that nonetheless prevented iSCSI from working in openSUSE.
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