SIUE Distributed Systems Project

[William Grim]

Hey everyone.

As many of you know, I like working with Unix, and in a way I'm like Tim Allen of computing: "More power *ar ar ar*!"

Anyway, I was thinking, what if some of the more skilled CS students got together with me this fall and helped lay out plans for a distributed systems project?  It would be similar to Beowulf, except we could write our own libraries and possibly have goals that Beowulf projects don't currently pursue.

As a development platform, I was thinking we could use FreeBSD 5-CURRENT (at least until 5-STABLE is released late this year).  I think one of the requirements should be that you install FreeBSD 5-CURRENT or 5-STABLE on your system in order to participate.  I also think we should use the C++ language, but I'm open to using other languages as well.  For source control, CVS is the best way to go, unless someone has a better suggestion (I'm all ears).

I'd like this to be an open project for everyone to use or view.

Before I get started with some questions, I know I would need some knowledgable people who don't mind working with others.  I'll definately need at least one or two technical writers (don't kid yourself, if you're good at tech. writing and not good at coding, tech. writers are VERY handy and important) and one or two coders other than me.  I want to try and start with a team of 5 or so people.

So, what do all of you guys think?  I want to know what kind of goals you would have in mind for a project like this.

Do you think something like this would be useful?

Do you think we should have a different distributed systems project that is more useful?  If so, what kind of project?

Do you think we should incorporate some sort of database into a project like this?  Meaning, do you think we should build a distributed database tool into this (I don't currently have an idea on how we would do this, but I'm open to ideas)?

Let me know what you think with your feed back.

Thanks.

[DaleDoe]

I'm up for that sort of a challenge--that is if I have some spare time this fall.  I'd be happy to help out as much as I can on the coding.  Not much of a tech writer.  The problem is time, though.  I don't know how much time I'll have.  I guess you can count me as a maybe.

[William Grim]

Hey, that sounds great!

I understand everyone's time will be limited; so, I don't want to get over-zealous with a project like this.  I would be happy if we even got a small prototype working.

I don't want to consume a large amount of anyone's time.  I was thinking we could meet once a week to lay out ground work, pound out issues, and do a couple hours of real coding (once documents are ready).

If we get a few more interested people, we can start working on coordinating our meeting times in the fall.

Thanks.

[William Grim]

Hey, Dale, I emailed you at your address that you have on here.

Didn't know if you got it or not.  :-)

[Stiffler]

NASA uses a Beowulf cluster. In fact I have the very same version of linux with all the cluster stuff that they use. Just don't ask how or where I got it. :roll: Anyways I think that is a great idea. I suggested to Quade that we do that with our computers back when he was still in the dorms. We almost had time to set one up. I can help out in the Fall, 'cause I on'y got two classes.

I need to get that savhanna (sp?) module done for XOOPS, the the source code could be hosted on the CAOS site, since it is CS related. Savanna uses subversion or cvs or both. I think it might even use rsync. Anyways, rsync is supposed to be easier on the server than cvs. Hence, Gentoo mirrors use rsync. I don't know all the commands for, mind you, Gentoo does everything for you.

Jon

[William Grim]

Well, I've contacted a couple people, and we weren't actually going to setup a Beowulf cluster, just something like it.  We want to have different goals.

I'll email you the threads we've been passing around to get you up to speed; it's actually a pretty unique project. :-D

[William Grim]

Looks like we've got the people we need to start on something.

Once we get things setup with licensing and whatever else we might need (patents, etc), we'll start posting to the Internet.  :-)