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Minutes of meeting 08/01/2001 @ 2pm |
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Location: UKC Computer Science Meeting Room |
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Present: ab11, ajm4, pjm2, tdb1 |
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Absent: None |
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The meeting began in an enthusiastic manner, with all group |
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members eager to get on - not what you'd expect for the |
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first Monday of the Millenium ! |
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First, a review of work done, if any, over the Christmas |
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break. Paul was first to state that the "historal clients" |
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he's been doing (web based) are a lot harder than they first |
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seemed, but they are coming along very well. Tim reported |
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that he had put a queue into the central point of the |
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server, and added a few features (eg. javadoc generation) to |
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the makefiles. Ash told the group about his work on the |
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host, and plans to restructure it to aid porting to C++. |
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AJ was pleased to report back that it had been lovely and |
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sunny in Teneriefe, in constrast to the snow in the UK, and |
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that he'd had some 'ideas'.... the group sighed :) |
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Initial discussions started with what needed to be done this |
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term, and when by. It was agreed that there were probably 10 |
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weeks at the most to get everything finished, and everyone |
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was happy with the notion that it should be completed |
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*before* the start of project week. A target of around 5 |
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weeks was set to complete the majority of the coding, giving |
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us the rest for documentation, testing and review. More |
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precise goals may be set in weeks to come. |
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AJ mentioned that a "text based" client could be useful, and |
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likened it to the "top" program found on raptor |
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(/usr/local/sbin/top). This would display basic information |
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in an easily digestable form, and would be quick to load. |
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This is something that the customer has requested. |
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AJ also brought up an idea suggested by Tim a while back, |
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the restructering of logging in the server. The idea was |
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that the log messages would be sent to a logging unit, as |
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they do at present, but that this logging unit would pump |
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these messages back into the filter system for delivery to |
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clients. This would remove the single logging console |
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(although it could still log to a file), and allow any |
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client to view the current status of the server. |
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This brought on the discussion of how these would pass "un- |
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filtered" through the system, which then led to the similar |
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issue with heartbeats. This would be looked into by Tim, |
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although no work would be done on the logging setup at this |
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stage. More emphasis was placed on making the server |
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'complete', which entails fixing the heartbeat problem. |
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Next it was decided what would be done in the immediate |
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future. Paul requested doing the command line client after |
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completion of the historical clients, which should be |
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completed in around a week. The group agreed on this. |
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AJ said he had ideas for a GUI client, and would work on |
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this. Ash said that a rewrite of the host was required to |
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make porting to C++ easier. He also said work on the C++ |
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host was to begin soon. |
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Tim is to complete the functionality in the client interface |
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part of the server, and patch up other areas that needed |
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fixing (eg. heartbeats). The aim is to "complete" the server |
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at this stage. |
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Finally, it was pointed out that the server needs to be |
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brought to a stage where it can be released and set running |
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on raptor. This is required so the group members working on |
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hosts and clients can test their setup is complete. |
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The next meeting will be on Wednesday afternoon after the |
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meeting with Ian. Meeting room is booked 3pm to 5pm. |
