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Minutes of meeting 15/01/2001 @ 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 started with a review of the clients. Everyone |
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was impressed with the status of them. Work is to continue |
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over the next week or so to complete them. |
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The issue of the server locking up was to be addressed. |
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However, in testing during the meeting it was decided that |
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it was a problem in the ClientInterface - an issue which is |
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still being resolved. Further investigation was put off |
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until this has been completed. |
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Data to be grabbed was discussed. This is becoming an |
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important issue as the clients are requiring more precise |
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details. It was decided the the "grabbing" part of the host |
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should be seperated, for now, from the main program. A Perl |
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program will be written which will parse output from various |
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system commands (which ports for different OS's) and output |
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it in ascii for use by the host application. This will also |
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aid porting of the host into C++, which is continuing. It is |
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hoped that this "grabbing" code will be moved to C++ |
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eventually, but this is a good stop gap, and will also work |
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well if moving to C++ cannot be completed. |
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The group expressed concern on the progress of the host |
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application. With work moving fast on the client side a |
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solid and reliable host was required. The current host is |
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unpredictable and can crash unexpectedly. These issues are |
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being addressed. The group also requested that the server be |
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"completed" for a release soon, allowing it to be left |
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running on Killigrew[1] for host and client testing. |
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Another issued raised was the client to server protocol. A |
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protocol needs to be clearly defined to make server and |
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client development easier. AJ & Tim discussed this and will |
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produce a spec soon. |
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Tim raised the issue of Makefiles. The server benefits |
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greatly from some extended Makefiles, and the other |
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components could use some basic ones to allow quick & easier |
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building. This will be looked into. |
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Finally, it became apparent that the util package of the |
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server contains code required in the clients. It was agreed |
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that this package should be available seperately in a JAR |
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file for use in the clients. Tim agreed to do this, |
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arranging Makefiles and changing code to remove dependencies |
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with the rest of the server. |
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The next meeting will be on Monday afternoon at the usual |
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time. The meeting room is booked 2pm to 5pm. |
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[1] - Killigrew is a FreeBSD machine made available by Tim. |
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Continued use is not guaranteed, but it does provide |
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the group with a "shared" user for running the server. |
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This makes stopping/starting/controlling the server |
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possible by anyone in the group - something not |
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available to us on Raptor. |
