KOSH [Kommunity Orientated Software Hardware]

Weekly Summary

Week Commencing: 3rd April 1999

Number: 015

Mailing List: kosh-general

In the mailing list this week, the following items were discussed. Please do
not email the scribe regarding any of these topics, it is not his job to answer
these questions but merely to report  the topics of conversation. If you have
any queries about this summary, please email ben@kosh.net, stating the Summary
Number, and Mailing List Name, and he will try to answer your queries.

a)

Subject: UML notation

Summary of debate: See: http://www.rational.com which details a notation called
                   UML (email to the ML was about the design diagrams that were
                   discussed).


b)

Subject: Closed KOSH?

Summary of debate: It was expressed that some may feel KOSH to be a closed
                   group, particularly with the website being down at the
                   moment.

                   Actions to remedy this situation include getting the web
                   site back up, issuing surveys asking what people want of
                   KOSH (and publishing the results) and promotion of the
                   surveying working group to do this.


c)

Subject: Standardised coding

Summary of debate: Without standards and things like Interface Control Drawings
                   could cause difficulties for programmers later on. Formal
                   specifications for any software created are a must.

                   It was mentioned that perhaps we should not start direct
                   coding for KOSH until standards, schematics, etc have been
                   designed and implemented. However there is no reason why
                   people should not try out their own ideas by coding them in
                   whatever language on whichever system they prefer with the
                   aim to be to port them to KOSH at some point in the future.

d)

Subject: Recursion

Summary of debate: A lot was said on how to implement and use recursion in KOSH
                   programming, including using it for sorting algorithms.
                   However it is not the quickest or most space-efficient
                   construct available.

                   It was mentioned that recursion could in fact be as fast as
                   the same function coded non-recursively. It depends on the
                   language and compiler.


e)

Subject: More on KOSH, Linux and Windows

Summary of debate: One argument against using Linux with KOSH-hosted is that it
                   is based on a 25-year old  OS technology. The same can be
                   said of Windows which is based on 15-year old OS technology.

                   However as has been suggested on numerous occasions these
                   two systems provide probably the best opportunities for
                   hosted versions of KOSH, at least to start with.


f)

Subject: Commercial Open Source Software (COSS)

Summary of debate: Details of how to reconcile the advantages of Open Source
                   Software with being paid for ones efforts at:
                   http://www.treetop.demon.co.uk/coss.html

                   The Slashdot discussion is at
                   http://www.slashdot.org/articles/99/04/04/1544211.shtml

                   These approaches could be useful to KOSH which in part at
                   least seeks to combine Open Source with an ultimately
                   commercial venture.

                   A subscription to KOSH could be one way to gather revenue
                   while at the same time providing easy access to source
                   information.


g)

Subject: Planar into "Pixel Land"

Summary of debate: A long debate was had on the merits and possibilities of
                   taking Planar display modes and getting PC Chunky Pixel
                   graphics cards to use them, thus allowing both bitplane and
                   chunky pixel on one device.

                   MCGA, a graphics mode that came after VGA but before(?) SVGA
                   was mentioned. This could in part provide something of a
                   cross over but it may be limited on resolution.

h)

Subject: Fractal packing

Summary of debate: See the following for an introduction to the above:
    http://www.rasip.fer.hr/research/compress/algorithms/adv/fraccomp/index.htm

                   Two further resources on this are:
                   http://inls.ucsd.edu/y/Fractals/ or
                   http://links.uwaterloo.ca/fractals.home.html


i)

Subject: KOSH Birthday cake

Summary of debate: Joel Newkirk has pledged an awful lot of cookies and a
                   birthday cake for the release party of KOSH v1.0


j)

Subject: New ML -> kosh-programming-o

Summary of debate: A new open mailing list with the above title has been
                   created by Jason Radford. Subscribe at
                   kosh-programming-o@kosh.net - It is intended to be used to
                   discuss the majority of programming and language issues that
                   have been generated on the general mailing list as well as
                   more besides.


k)

Subject: Abbreviation reference source

Summary of debate: Suggested that a list of all abbreviations in common usage
                   on the internet (such as AFAIK, OFC< IMHO, etc) as well as
                   all the smileys and terms such as OOP and BOOPSI could be
                   written and hosted on the KOSH site. It would help KOSH to
                   be more inclusive.

                   Ruward F. Leenstra mentioned the suggestion to have a
                   Terminology Working Group who could be responsible for this.


l)

Subject: Request for permanent help with summaries

Summary of debate: The scribe of the General Mailing List (mois - Bridge Deady)
                   has asked for offers of assistance with summarising the KOSH
                   General Mailing List, preferably on a permanent basis (and
                   has received some offers to help already - much
                   appreciated). If you can help please email the scribe at
                   csbdeady@mythicz.u-net.com




m)

Subject: Colour filters

Summary of debate: An inbuilt graphics filter that compares pixels side by side
                   could possibly help with some forms of colour blindness
                   and/or "colour fuzziness" (eg: red text on a green
                   background can often swim for a lot of people).


n)

Subject: Blinux and further Braille discussions

Summary of debate: While discussing the use of Braille terminals it was
                   mentioned that Blinux is at http://leb.net/blinux/

                   The mechanical complexity of a Braille terminal can mean
                   that they are prone to breaking down. It was suggested that
                   it could be replaced by heated spots - but they would have
                   to cool very quickly. A stereo speaker built into the device
                   would alert the user of a change in the device - this would
                   emulate the mechanical clicker. By being stereo it would
                   alert them as to whether the changes are to the left or the
                   right of the centre of the board.