About QT/Nokia again

The more I think about this acquisition, the more I steer away from wanting to use Qt for new development. I almost feel like the rug was pulled from under my feet. People who are more in the know than me seem to be confused or some what against this. You even have some of the Trolls questioning what the future might bring, check it out http://labs.trolltech.com/blogs/2008/01/30/about-the-nokia-acquisition/ and don't forget to read the comments.

Do I think it's all doom and gloom? No. I just don't want to invest a ton of time into a framework and have a corporation swing along restricting me from using it in open source development. If Nokia reaffirms the community they intend to keep Qt open source for a very long time through actions they take, then I will re-evaluate my position. I want to spend time developing solutions, not worrying about UI framework portability.

I'll just follow the yellow brick road.

QuantLib finance library

All I can say is sweet.

Each day I'm amazed at what's available as Open Source. I've been looking for a finance library to build out an analysis application. I've come across QuantLib before, but I really didn't look into it further at the time. However, this is exactly what I need right now. Even if I only use the schedule class, this is great.

The best part is the only requirement is Boost.

Nokia to acquire TrollTech

Well, there goes the neighborhood. I want this to be a good thing, but from what I'm seeing out there, this may impact the use of Qt in Open Source. I think it might be time to start looking around or taking a slightly different direction with my OSS projects.

http://labs.trolltech.com/blogs/2008/01/28/nokia-to-acquire-trolltech/

There are so many questions on where they will take this company and I would hate to invest a ton of time and effort with a framework that may change drastically over the next five years.

Bazaar hosting and more

Within the last 24 hours of using Launchpad.net I've been hooked, just like when I started using ViM and Bzr.

Honestly the easiest way to find out all of the features is to visit their tour. One thing, if you are using Bazaar for version control and develop an open source project, this site is for you.

Why am I posting about this again? Well, because I can and I think this site lowers the barrier to entry for others to contribute to your project. And I'm not just talking about code contributions, but translations, support, ideas and bugs. They introduce teams into the mix, changing up the way contributions are made. Also, you can tap into translation groups, how sweet is that?!

Moving projects

I found SourceForge.net project hosting to be kind of clunky. There is no flow to the way things work. Sometimes I think it would be easier to just host the information myself.

I've run across LaunchPad.net before and I'm seeing more developers move their projects over. Since I switched to Bazaar for version control, I've run into issues trying to merge my source with SourceForge and what that method looks like. However, LP supports Bazaar and it's even the preferred method of interacting with your project source. I did a couple test runs and it was extremely to push my source. I also enjoy their method of managing projects and bringing people together to contribute.

So, I'm moving my projects over.

Qoin - Personal finance application

I don't know why I can't seem to let it go, but I'm going to move forward with my personal finance application. I will continue to use and contribute to KMyMoney until I have a 0.1 stable release. Instead of developing separate finance apps (bill tracker, checkbook, home inventory), I'm going to combine them into one, called Qoin. It will use Qt 4 and SQLite.

After everything is said and done I will have three applications I will develop, manage and support:

• Qoin - Personal finance application
• RetailADVANCE - Point-of-sale application
• CrystalQue - Messaging and collaboration server

That's it I swear. I have a son with a daughter on the way, so unless I start teaching them how to code, I need to focus my time and energy.

Tag you're it

Technorati Profile

CrystalQue - Messaging and Collaboration

Well, I made my first step in getting this project going, I purchased the domain names and decided on the project name, CrystalQue. Added to the ever growing list of domains set on auto renew.

I will have something up soon to go over the basics of the project and provide a spot to share ideas. Well, off to get another cup of coffee.

Btw, RFC 821 is a great doc and not bad night time reading.

C++ and FastCGI

Am I crazy for wanting to do web development in C++?

If I am who cares, this is sweet stuff. I think Wt is great, but I hate being tied down to yet another license. Also, I had issues trying to get Wt up and running, but a simple FCGI app was easy to get going. The more time I spend configuring something, the less time I have for development.

If you want to check FastCGI, look at the FastCGI Developer's Kit. Just so you know CGI has been around forever, but Old *old = new New().

Development focus and As if you really cared update

I'm moving my development efforts for my personal finance apps over to an existing OSS project KMyMoney. They seem like a good group of devs, testers, etc. This is also a great project that I feel I can contribute a lot to. They currently use KDE3/QT3, but hopefully they will move over to KDE4/QT4 eventually. I am still working on the collaboration/messaging server.

An update to the "As if you really cared" post. I switched my OS over to Kubuntu and think this may be the last time I personally run Windows, work is another issue :). I shutdown my Win2k3/Exchange server and will start building the Linux server that will house my new pet project. Plus if I need to do some Win development for someone, Mono now runs .NET 3.0, crazy, looks like someones living at Bills house. But I will use QT instead of .NET if I can, hey don't hate because I can't stop.

Barrier to entry

Why oh why do a lot of open source projects make it so tough to contribute. They get the config tools, tutorials and knowledge all sync'd up with the way they want to develop the project and then they change it up.

I wish some of them would just stick to something or find a way to decrease the barrier to entry. So more developers can contribute without spending the majority of the time just trying to compile the project.

I know this is a rant, but I had to get it out of my head.

Open source messaging and collaboration server

One of my development goals this year is to begin and maintain an open source messaging and collaboration server. Think an open source version of Exchange. I plan to provide a client sort of like Outlook as well.

There are a couple Exchange alternatives out there, but hey why not reinvent the wheel. Why? Because I can.

My goal will be to build a cross-platform server and client with a very small set of dependencies. Right now without doing to much design the dependency list is:
QT
ACE
PostGRES

I'll keep this blog updated on my progress and once I have a page setup I'll post it.

Happy New Year!

New Year, New Goals. Or same goals new outlook :).

This year's theme for me is, focus. My primary weakness is unfocused efforts. I start something, get it rolling and then I move to the next thing. So, this is the year I will buckle down and stick with my goals and direction. This will help my other weakness, follow-through. Top that off with procrastination and you have a recipe for failure. Which is my third weakness.

As you can see I have a bunch of things to work on, but it will be a great year.

To take my first step towards my new years resolution, I'm going to get off the fence. I've been on the fence forever about using C++ or C#. Well, I'm sticking with C++ for my primary development language. This is not to say I won't develop in C# if a project comes up that requires it. What this means is, when I develop an application or maybe even web app (witty.sf.net), it will be in C++. With the help of certain frameworks I don't see this being an issue.

I'm going to use and stick with TrollTech's Qt (www.trolltech.com) framework. They have a solid framework to work from, which will help increase productivity and provide the cross-platform capabilities I need. I will continue to work on my own C++ window toolkit, but this will be more of a hobby.

As for personal and career direction, my company will stick with open source. If a company hires me on to do C++ development, then I will of course move over, but my company R6 will remain an open source company. I'm hoping to make that transition from network eng/admin to developer this year, but being realistic I think this will happen a couple of years from now. So, instead of being on the fence of, do I write commercial apps to generate revenue or do I go the open source route, I"m sticking with open source.

Last but not least I'm going back to school. I'm looking at Kaplan's BS in software development, so that should be interesting. I realize I need a degree to be taken seriously in the software development industry. This will also help reinforce self-taught knowledge I've gained over the last decade.

Well that's it for now.