#1 2011-03-10 23:59:32

todd_alan_martin

Member

Registered: 2008-03-06

Posts: 131

Bug Tracker and Source Control for Code-Aster

Hi Christophe

I have created a new thread to link back to this discussion
http://www.code-aster.org/forum2/viewtopic.php?id=14943

Firstly let me say that my criticism of the lack of a bug-tracker and access to source control for code-aster is not a criticism of the huge effort made by EDF and their generosity in sharing their intellectual property with the public domain! I certainly appreciate that.

Indeed, what we call our inner « bug-tracker » is private and we do not plan to open it. Several companies or academic entities (other than EDF) have access to it but it is strictly framed by co-development agreements, with legal duties for the both parts.

What are the reasons for keeping EDF's bug-tracker private ?
- Most of the time, a bug report shows more or less of the study in object (attachments for bug replay). Showing EDF's computations, especially the ones connected to nuclear studies, cannot be considered.
- Our bug-tracker is also our tool for managing all the Code_Aster improvements. It is EDF's privilege to keep private the development plan of Code_Aster, our current subjects of technical interest and so on.
- Fixing the bugs related to EDF's engineering version of Code_Aster is a very strict duty for us, framed within a specific process. In spite of the great attention we pay to feedbacks from the open-source community, we cannot manage these bug alerts indistinctly from those coming from our engineering departments.

What could we do for helping the community ?
I agree with you concerning the awkwardness of using the forum threads as a vehicle for bug reports. A real opened bug-tracker would be more convenient. We are thinking about it. This is not a promise but the question will be examined with all the attention it deserves . Please note that this opened bug-tracker will be allways strictly distinct from the EDF's one for the reasons given above. You can see it as a displacement of a part of the forum towards a more convenient tool.

I would strongly recommend you look at Bugzilla as a bug-tracker. It is open source, created by Mozilla, and has features which allow you to restrict access to bug reports by users and groups. Also it can be hooked up to Git, Subversion and CVS repositories. These repositories also can have access restricted by user/group, depending on the application server chosen.

About EDF's interest in the composite models :
Well. Code_Aster, and the mechanical models it contains, is an image of EDF's subjects of interest, related to materials and structure that EDF has to deal with (nuclear powerplants, dams, turbine shafts ... ). So, in spite of being an all-purpose software in mechanics, Code_Aster has numerous forces (behaviours for steel and concrete, damage, contact ... ) and also weaknesses (including composites which are pretty rare in nuclear plants). As an open-source code, all the goodwills for improving or developping efficient finite elements for composites are obviously welcome.

This will certainly be facilitated with access to the source control and a bug-tracker.

I can tell you right now that I could internationalise the Eficas applciation in about 1 week, if I had access to a branch of the code. Then other users could easily create/edit translation files for each and every language. Not just french and english. I'm sure there are other users out there, who would appreciate that. While I can certainly patch my local copy immediately, (and I have already started this), I see no point in creating a version of Eficas which will not be merged into the source trunk. It would just become a maintenance nightmare.

Apart from having a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering, I have also worked in commercial software development (not just in an academic/scientific environment). By restricting access to the source code and a bug-tracker you are hobbling the efforts of those outside EDF who are able to contribute in many ways.

Todd

nchauvat

Member

Registered: 2011-03-07

Posts: 17

Re: Bug Tracker and Source Control for Code-Aster

Hi Todd,

Feel free to use http://www.python-science.org/project/libaster to track issues about code_aster.

The mercurial repository will be available next week at http://hg.python-science.org after Alain is done with the python training he is currently giving.

AsterO'dactyle

Administrator

Registered: 2007-11-29

Posts: 456

Re: Bug Tracker and Source Control for Code-Aster

Code_Aster is not a web browser.

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Code_Asterの開発者

todd_alan_martin

Member

Registered: 2008-03-06

Posts: 131

Re: Bug Tracker and Source Control for Code-Aster

Hi AsterO'dactyle

Code_Aster is not a web browser.

I don't understand your comment. Are you referring to BugZilla? It is used by

Free Software Projects

    * Mozilla: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/
    * Linux Kernel: http://bugzilla.kernel.org/
    * Gnome: http://bugzilla.gnome.org/
    * KDE: http://bugs.kde.org/
    * Apache Project: http://issues.apache.org/bugzilla/
    * Open Office: http://www.openoffice.org/issues/query.cgi
    * Eclipse: http://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/

Linux Distributions

    * Red Hat: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/
    * Mandriva: http://qa.mandriva.com/
    * Gentoo: http://bugs.gentoo.org/
    * Novell: https://bugzilla.novell.com/

Companies

    * NASA: http://itos.gsfc.nasa.gov/~bugzilla/
    * Facebook: http://bugs.developers.facebook.com/
    * Plus Akamai, Nokia, The New York Times, Yahoo! and many more

Todd.

Last edited by todd_alan_martin (2011-03-11 23:36:46)

todd_alan_martin

Member

Registered: 2008-03-06

Posts: 131

Re: Bug Tracker and Source Control for Code-Aster

Hi nchauvat

Feel free to use http://www.python-science.org/project/libaster to track issues about code_aster.
The mercurial repository will be available next week at http://hg.python-science.org after Alain is done with the python training he is currently giving.

Thanks. Will the mercurial repository be hosting Eficas?

nchauvat

Member

Registered: 2011-03-07

Posts: 17

Re: Bug Tracker and Source Control for Code-Aster

Thanks. Will the mercurial repository be hosting Eficas?

No. The repository at https://hg.python-science.org/libaster is hosting only the source found in the tarball aster-full-src-10.3.0/SRC/aster-src-10.3.0-1.noarch.tar.gz.

If you would be willing to maintain a (friendly) fork of eficas, we could make some space for you on the forge at python-science.org, but Logilab does not intend to put work into Eficas.